OCC green lights innovation in digital identity | #326

Also, the biggest win of Brennan Wertz’s career

Jun 30, 2025

Our weekly newsletter covers news, industry perspectives, and updates from the USBC ecosystem. Check out our last report here.

This week:

OCC green lights innovation in digital identity
Fed eliminates reputational risk component for exams
USBC athlete Brenna Wertz wins SBT GRVL
The era of corporate Bitcoin
Stuff happens

1. OCC green lights innovation in digital identity

Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney Hood issued a statement on Friday supporting an exemption to the Customer Identification Program (CIP) that would allow banks to bring new innovative approaches to digital identity and online verification (via Linda Jenkinson):

I support the Order granting an exemption to the Customer Identification Program, or CIP rule, allowing banks to utilize an alternative collection method to obtain Taxpayer Identification Number information from a third party, rather than from a customer, provided that certain other criteria are met.
The Order is a good step in the process of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) modernization. It will benefit both consumers and the banking industry by promoting innovation and financial inclusion and providing banks more flexibility to operate in a manner that suits their business model.
The Order promotes an innovative approach to CIP compliance by supporting greater use and acceptance of online or mobile banking activities and allowing banks to leverage the use of online identity verification services that were neither available nor contemplated by regulators when this rule was adopted in 2003. The Order also promotes financial inclusion, allowing greater access to financial products and services by addressing the legitimate concerns of customers who are unwilling to provide their full TIN in an electronic format, in an online account opening or credit application.

2. Fed eliminates reputational risk component for exams

The Federal Reserve is also removing barriers to enable innovation in banking. Last week, it announced that the bank supervisor would be removing its “reputational risk” component from exams:

The Board has started the process of reviewing and removing references to reputation and reputational risk from its supervisory materials, including examination manuals, and, where appropriate, replacing those references with more specific discussions of financial risk. The Board will train examiners to help ensure this change is implemented consistently across Board-supervised banks and will work with the other federal bank regulatory agencies to promote consistent practices, as necessary.

Here’s Reuters:

The Fed joins other U.S. bank regulators -- the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation -- in moving to drop that examination standard. Banks had complained that policing that sort of risk can lead to examiners dinging banks for matters that may be legal and not financially risky, and can lead to subjective judgments by supervisors on what bank activities are suitable.
The Fed clarified in its statement that it still expects banks to have robust risk management. It also said the announcement does not preclude banks from considering reputational risk themselves when making decisions.

3. USBC athlete Brennan Wertz wins SBT GRVL

Among a crowded world-class field, USBC sponsored athlete and reigning U.S. gravel champion Brennan Wertz emerged victorious over the weekend in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, taking his first SBT GRVL gold.

Brennan fended off three-time SBT champ Keegan Swenson to earn what he described to us as “probably the biggest result of [his] career.”

Here’s Cycling News:

Swenson opened a gap with Stetina, Freeburn and Wertz, with Røed and Vermeulen tagging on across the ensuing downhill. Once the second lap began with 89 miles to go, the group of six hammered away with a one-minute gap to chasers. It became the break of the day.
…
With 62 miles to go, Røed lost touch at the front. Later in the second lap he fell into a chase group with Bottcher, Haga, Kasch and Roberge, the group losing momentum and trailing by 4:30 as they began the third and final lap. The leading group of five traded pulls and continued to pull away.
"There was really good collaboration and by the time we started that third lap, it's like the heat really seemed to ratchet up, and everyone kind of lost that top gear. And in addition, the wind flipped 180 degrees, so it became a headwind on all the climbs on the last lap, making it impossible to basically get away," Stetina recounted.
"Brennan was able to really play his strengths on those false flat downhills, especially once the pavement started. Kudos to him. I just did what I could on a not super-selective day, but it was super fun to race and be aggressive and still get on the podium."
Wertz powered through the final rollers and continued solo to the finish for his first victory at SBT GRVL.

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Here’s what what Wertz told Cycling News after the big win:

"This is my favorite race every year. It's really one of my favorite places to ride a gravel bike. This is a race I've wanted to win since 2021 when I first came so it's a huge honor to take this one. To do it in the stars and stripes makes it all the more beautiful.
I knew with that last corner I didn't want it to come down to a sprint. And I also knew with this finish, the last 2k was more or less downhill, pretty fast. I'm a bigger guy, I've got gravity on my side. I put a 54 tooth chainring on my bike at the last minute to give a little extra gear for that final and yeah, it paid off in the end.”

Brennan’s post-race interview with Velo:

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Congrats to Brennan from the entire USBC team!

And check out Brennan’s IG for his recaps of the event.

4. The era of corporate Bitcoin

Here’s Axios:

Public companies are buying a lot of cryptocurrency all of a sudden.
Why it matters: The trend often blends meme-stock hype with inventive financial engineering, all aimed at beating the market in a booming sector. For some, it also carries a potentially explosive risk if crypto markets turn south.
The big picture: More than 100 public companies have bought bitcoin alone to park in their treasuries. For some, it's just a small fraction of their assets. But for a few, buying crypto has become their main business strategy.
Between the lines: The argument for buying stock in a "crypto treasury" company — as opposed to buying the actual crypto — is they can grow the value of their shares at a faster rate than the price of the crypto they target.

Relevant:

Bitcoin climbs as companies increasingly use tokens to 'hedge against inflation'

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