The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC")
released a final rule on December 15, 2020,
concerning industrial banks and industrial loan companies
(collectively, "ILCs") and their parent companies (the
"Final Rule"). The Final Rule, which takes effect on
April 1, 2021, is an important development in the changing
regulatory approach to ILCs and should be of interest to those
fintech firms and others seeking to provide certain banking
services without becoming bank holding companies.
New Regime for ILC Holding Companies Going
Forward
ILCs are state-chartered insured depository institutions that
are "banks" for purposes of the Federal Deposit Insurance
Act ("FDI Act") but not the Bank Holding Company Act (the
"BHC Act"). As a result, ILC charters have been regarded
as highly valuable: there are only 23 currently operating and they
have been relatively difficult to establish or acquire, and their
parent companies are not regulated and supervised as bank