WASHINGTON, DC–The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is establishing a new office specifically for financial tech innovation.

The office will be headed by a Chief Innovation Officer assigned to OCC headquarters with staff located in Washington, DC, New York and San Francisco. It will start out serving as a clearinghouse for requests and information on innovation, but regulation or at least guidance is on the agenda too at some point, per the responsible innovation framework [PDF] that the OCC also rolled out with the office's launch.

For commercial real estate, this new office is more of a “something to watch” development.

The OCC appears to be most interested in fintech aimed at consumers that is being developed by bank and nonbank institutions. It noted that OCC-supervised institutions are currently in various stages of developing and implementing innovation strategies. Some banks have launched their own innovation labs, while many larger banks are providing venture capital funding and acquiring fintech companies. Other institutions are taking more of a watch and follow approach, it said.

Separately, in a completely different universe, commercial real estate financial tech is not only emerging but beginning to make a mark. It is not inconceivable that the twain will intersect one day, perhaps when a bank acquires one of these start ups.

Earlier this year CB Insights took at a look at the commercial real estate tech space, highlighting 53 startups that it deemed to be reshaping the industry.

A number of the categories CB Insights looked at wouldn't be of interest to OCC. Listing and search services, would be one example, or marketplaces that match commercial real estate buyers with sellers.

But the investment platforms certainly would should they ever be acquired by an entity regulated by the OCC. Some of the major providers in this space include Cadre, CrowdStreet, Fundrise, PeerStreet, RealCrowd, Realty Mogul, and Realtyshares.

Instant Insights /

OCC Establishes a New Office for Financial Technology

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