Banking Agencies Issue NPR Regarding Electronic Communications

The OCC, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the FDIC, and the NCUA (collectively, the Agencies) proposed changes to the Uniform Rules of Practice and Procedure (the Rules) to allow the use of electronic communications in administrative proceedings for financial institutions. The Agencies recognized that electronic communications have fundamentally changed administrative hearings and that the existing Rules have not kept pace with existing technology and practice. In particular, the existing Rules were adopted over 25 years ago when only paper pleadings were accepted by the Agencies. In order to avoid having administrative proceedings handled on an ad hoc basis by administrative law judges, and to ensure that the Rules reflect that paper pleadings generally have not been used in well over 15 years, the Agencies are seeking to modify the Rules to recognize electronic pleadings and communications. This effort is intended to increase the efficiency and fairness of administrative adjudications. Any changes to the Rules would apply only to actions filed after the effective date of the final Rules. Comments for the proposed changes are due on or before June 13, 2022.