The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has launched an innovative regulatory policy for startups that are researching blockchain and financial technology

U.S. banking regulators have unveiled a sweeping innovation policy aimed at overseeing startups working on blockchain and other financial technologies.

On October 26, 2016, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released its “Responsible Innovation Framework,” an outline of a policy the agency had been working on since earlier this year. In March, the OCC released a white paper on its regulatory objectives.

The agency will establish an "Office of Innovation" based in Washington, which will be responsible for leading policy development and promotion related to financial technology.

The director of the office will be named the OCC's chief innovation officer and will report directly to Comptroller General Thomas Curry, and the OCC said it will also expand internal training programs to educate employees on technologies like blockchain.

In its report, the agency said it was seeking to highlight the rapid developments facing the financial sector, noting:

“Today, financial technology is already penetrating traditional banking functions such as customer lending, payments, wealth management and settlement. Financial technology is also leveraging new technologies and processes such as cloud computing, application programming interfaces, distributed ledgers, artificial intelligence and big data analytics.”

The OCC is seeking to actively participate in the shift in regulation of the technology in the United States. Last year, the OCC called for a "balanced" approach to regulating Bitcoin. In July, the OCC also included blockchain technology in a risk assessment of banks.

However, the regulatory framework announced by the OCC is just the beginning of a more important and controversial process.

Earlier this year, the OCC began investigating whether to create a special federal license for financial technology. As of this week, the investigation was still ongoing.

The agency said:

“The OCC is continuing to evaluate the authorization of a special purpose national bank charter to nonbank financial technology companies and under what conditions. The OCC is not yet certain at this time.”