The OCC’s decision to issue charters specific to fintech could have profound effects for the financial industry—but will those lead to positive or negative changes?

Opinions on this remain divided among the DLT devotees.

“This is a huge potential gamechanger for us—and it’s a potential gamechanger for many of the companies circulating around here, whether they know it or not,” said Ted Rogers, president for Xapo, during a panel at the Consensus 2017 conference yesterday.

According to Rogers—whose company Xapo provides bitcoin wallets and bitcoin-based debit cards and thus falls firmly on the ‘fintech’ side of the ecosystem—gaining one of these OCC fintech charters would dramatically reduce both compliance costs and stress for the fintech.

This is because Xapo would only have to worry about meeting the standards for one singular regulator, rather than worrying over compliance on a state-by-state basis.

“The level of detail we had to provide [to examiners] was staggering,” said Rogers, regarding a recent compliance examination. “If you only have to do that for one entity—I can’t tell you what a difference that makes.”

Others on the panel, including former regulators, remained skeptical.

“The OCC is using authority it issued to itself [for these charters] by redefining what a bank is,” said David Cotney, a current board member for Cross River Bank, who previously served as a commissioner of banks for the Massachusetts Division of Banks. According to Cotney, this “re-interpretation” of a bank is the underlying challenge for many regulators.

While Cotney gave credit to the OCC for the “forward-thinking” move, he went on to note that this charter could have negative effects on competition, as the first startups to gain it will be larger—meaning, have access to more capital—than their competitors.

“Meeting the charter—it’s going to be the companies who have the deepest pockets,” said Cotney during the panel, which can potentially create “a very uneven player field between those who might be able to acquire a fintech charter and those who can’t.”

In any case, whether the issuing of fintech charters will have the stress-relieving effects Xapo is clamoring for or will tilt the competitive balance of the fintech world remains to be seen.