On May 8, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney E. Hood spoke on his four priority areas: financial inclusion, reducing regulatory burdens, bank-fintech partnerships, and digital assets. He emphasized that financial inclusion serves as a critical civil rights issue, noting that 40 percent of U.S. households cannot cover a $400 emergency expense and approximately 70 million individuals are credit invisible. Through Project REACh (the Roundtable for Economic Access and Change), launched in July 2020, the OCC will bring together banking, business, technology and community organization leaders to address barriers in underserved communities. Among other items, Hood noted that successful pilot projects have shown that using transaction data instead of credit scores can open credit to formerly credit-invisible consumers.
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