The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Aug. 27 issued a joint final rule defining an “unsafe or unsound practice” as conduct contrary to generally accepted standards of prudent operation that has caused, or could reasonably cause, material financial harm to an institution or significant risk to the Deposit Insurance Fund. The agencies said the rule is meant to ensure examiners prioritize material financial risks over policies, process, documentation, and other nonfinancial concerns, and it takes effect 60 days after Federal Register publication. The OCC also released updated supervision manuals, including the first public Matters Requiring Attention manual, and proposed splitting banking-law violations into substantive and technical categories so only substantive breaches could support MRAs or enforcement. Comptroller Jonathan Gould framed the package as a return to risk-based supervision focused on substantive legal violations rather than process-driven distractions. Crypto industry observers, including Eleanor Terrett, have cast the shift as another step toward unwinding what the industry calls “Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” after Biden-era supervisory ambiguity and 2022 warnings that limited bank engagement with crypto and stablecoin firms were rescinded in early 2025 under the Trump administration. Jeremy Kress, associate professor of business law at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, criticized the rule as exceeding the agencies’ statutory authority, conflicting with judicial precedent, and undermining effective supervision, and said the next administration should rescind it. The framework covers OCC-supervised banks, including crypto-focused trust banks, without requiring banks to serve digital-asset clients or removing capital, liquidity, Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money-laundering, sanctions, or consumer-protection requirements, while OCC charter approvals tied to stablecoin issuers and crypto firms have risen during Trump’s second term.