Last week, the OCC announced that it had issued a full service national bank charter to Winter Park National Bank of Florida.
Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika released a statement in which he stated that Winter Park is “the first de novo national bank and first de novo approved for federal deposit insurance in Florida since the financial crisis.” He also commented that while the OCC was seeing “increasing interest in becoming new banks,” de novo banks continue to be “exceedingly rare.” He then suggested that the charter process needs to be improved, stating “[m]aking the process of establishing de novo banks more efficient can only accelerate the recent positive trend and create more economic opportunity for consumers, businesses, and communities across the nation.”