Bank Supervision: Interagency Guidance on Lending to Individuals Not Legally Authorized to Work in the United States
On July 13, 2026, following the President's Executive Order on "Restoring Integrity to America's Financial System," the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) issued guidance reminding supervised financial…
The OCC, FDIC, and NCUA issued interagency guidance on July 13, 2026 reminding supervised institutions to apply existing safe-and-sound credit risk management practices when lending to borrowers who are not legally authorized to work in the United States. The guidance does not create a new lending ban, but it signals heightened supervisory focus on underwriting, account management, credit classification, allowance analysis, and consumer compliance for these borrowers.
Key dates
- 2026-07-13
- OCC, FDIC, and NCUA issued the interagency guidance
- 2026-06-08
- CFPB issued its Statement on Ability To Repay and Immigration Status, referenced by the guidance
Suggested considerations
- Compliance teams may wish to review underwriting standards to confirm that repayment capacity, source of repayment, and overall financial condition are assessed consistently for borrowers whose work authorization is uncertain.
- Firms may wish to test whether account management, credit classification, and allowance methodologies adequately capture elevated credit risk linked to employment authorization uncertainty.
- Institutions may wish to review consumer compliance controls for alignment with TILA, Regulation Z, ECOA, and Regulation B when evaluating applicants affected by immigration or work-authorized status.
- Risk and compliance teams may wish to update portfolio monitoring, concentration analysis, and documentation standards so that the identified credit risk factors are reflected in governance and reporting.
- Community banks may wish to verify that loan policy language and examiner-facing documentation clearly show how these risks are being identified, measured, monitored, and controlled.
What changed
The publication is guidance, not a new rule or statute, and it reinforces existing expectations rather than imposing a new legal prohibition. It states that lending to individuals not legally authorized to work in the United States may present elevated credit risk because their ability to generate income, maintain employment, and remain financially stable may be more uncertain.
Compliance impact
The practical impact is moderate to significant for consumer and retail lending programs because the agencies are signaling that work-authorization uncertainty is a relevant credit-risk factor and a consumer-compliance consideration. The publication could increase supervisory scrutiny of underwriting rationale, documentation quality, and treatment of affected borrowers, especially where institutions cannot show that these risks are consistently incorporated into controls.
AI-generated analysis. May contain errors or omissions — verify with the original OCC source before acting. Full disclaimer.