The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted Social Finance, Inc. approval to establish a full-service national bank, to be called SoFi Bank, National Association.
According to the approval letter from the OCC, the conditional approval was based on representations and commitments made by the proposed bank’s representatives and all other information available to the OCC.
“We also made our decision to grant preliminary conditional approval with the understanding that the proposed bank will apply for Federal Reserve membership and will obtain deposit insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.,” OCC stated.
The OCC said it will give final approval and authorization once all preopening requirements are met, and has “reserved the right to modify, suspend, or rescind the preliminary approval should any interim development warrant such action.”
The OCC stated it received two comments regarding the proposed bank plans, one claiming the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) plan included with the application was vague and insufficient, and another opposing the approval for non-CRA related reasons and requesting an extension for the comment period.
The agency determined the Social Finance’s CRA plan to be sufficient for conditional approval.
“The OCC expects that organizers of a bank will begin to develop a CRA plan during the charter application phase; however, the OCC does not expect a bank to have a fully developed plan at this stage,” the agency stated. “The CRA plan should be finalized after a bank has received preliminary conditional approval from the OCC, but prior to final approval of the charter application.”