OCC: AMERICA IS ‘OPEN FOR BUSINESS’ FOR DIGITAL ASSET BANKS The OCC says companies engaged in legally permissible activities, including digital assets and novel technologies, should have a path to becoming national banks. Comptroller Jonathan Gould says regulators had effectively discouraged new bank applications for more than a decade, but that era is over. The OCC has received 40 de novo applications in the past 18 months and says many complete applications have been decided within 120 days.