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OCC Bulletin 2022-24 | November 29, 2022
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Chief Executive Officers of All National Banks, Federal Savings Associations, and Federal Branches and Agencies; Department and Division Heads; All Examining Personnel; and Other Interested Parties
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today released a revised Policies and Procedures Manual (PPM) for assessing civil money penalties (CMP), which the agency will begin using on January 1, 2023. This version of PPM 5000-7, "Civil Money Penalties," replaces the November 13, 2018, version conveyed by OCC Bulletin 2018-41, "OCC Enforcement Actions: OCC Enforcement Action Policies and Procedures Manuals."
This bulletin applies to community banks.1
PPM 5000-7 includes revisions to the CMP matrix for institutions, including
PPM 5000-7 adds examiner guidance related to factoring unquantifiable public harm (including redlining cases) and the use of business restrictions or other injunctive relief in conjunction with a CMP.
The CMP matrix is a tool to guide the OCC's decision making in assessing CMPs in specific cases, but it does not reduce supervisory decision making to a mathematical process. The CMP matrix is not a substitute for sound supervisory judgment, and the OCC may depart from the CMP matrix suggestions when appropriate.
The OCC first implemented a CMP matrix for institutions via the similarly titled CMP PPM dated February 26, 2016. Since then, the agency has found that the suggested action table accompanying the matrix did not allow for sufficient differentiation among varying levels of misconduct or by institution size. Further, the mitigating factors in the CMP matrix issued under OCC Bulletin 2018-41 did not give banks a sufficiently strong incentive to fully address underlying deficiencies.
Please contact the OCC's Enforcement group at (202) 649-6200 or Specialty Supervision Division at (202) 649-6450.
Beverly Cole Senior Deputy Comptroller for Midsize and Community Bank Supervision
Grovetta N. Gardineer Senior Deputy Comptroller for Bank Supervision Policy
Greg J. Coleman Senior Deputy Comptroller for Large Bank Supervision
Benjamin W. McDonough Senior Deputy Comptroller and Chief Counsel
1 "Banks" refers collectively to national banks, federal savings associations, covered savings associations, and federal branches and agencies of foreign banking organizations. "Institutions" collectively refers to banks, bank service companies, and service providers.