Bank Regulator’s Buyout Offer Sought by About a Quarter of Staff

Roughly a quarter of employees at a key federal banking regulator applied for voluntary buyout programs as part of the Trump administration’s bid to slash the federal workforce, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees national banks such as the depository units of Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., saw around 800 people apply for the agency’s “voluntary transition program” ahead of an April 24 deadline, according to multiple sources who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation.

Around 100 additional employees applied for a second round of offers through the Treasury Department’s deferred resignation program. The OCC, an independent bureau of the Treasury Department, had already shed 140 employees in the first wave of offers.

The agency, which examines banks for compliance with capital, liquidity, and other requirements and provides economic analysis of banking conditions, had around 3,600 employees at the beginning of the year, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

An OCC spokesperson declined to comment.

Other federal financial regulators including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the National Credit Union Administration have shed hundreds of employees through buyout and deferred resignation offers ahead of potential mass layoffs.

Diversity, Policy Focus

Not all OCC employees who apply for one of the voluntary separation programs will be accepted, according to an April 9 email from the agency’s executive committee obtained by Bloomberg Law.

People working in “mission critical” areas such as examination teams may not get approved, the email said.

The OCC’s Office of Management, Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, and units covering economic, policy, and risk analysis are set to take the biggest cuts in the agency’s effort to reduce its headcount, according to the email.

Most OCC employees who are accepted into the agency’s voluntary separation program will get a lump-sum payment equal to five months of their salary, including enhancements for those who live in high-cost areas such as New York City. People in the units targeted for downsizing will receive the equivalent of six months pay, according to the email.

OCC employees who accept the voluntary buyout won’t be subject to a reduction-in-force action, the agency email said. They can also opt to receive their payment in 2026 to spread out their tax burden.

The Treasury Department separately began a second round of offers under its deferred resignation program to OCC and some other employees last month, according to an email obtained by Bloomberg Law.

The deferred resignation program allows employees to be paid on administrative leave through September before exiting government service.

Only around 75,000 of the federal government’s 2.4 million workers applied for the initial deferred resignation program earlier this year.

The OCC’s effort to cut its workforce coincides with Treasury Department efforts to more directly control federal banking regulators.

The OCC already combined its midsize and community bank and large bank supervision functions into a new bank supervision and examination line of business, according to an April statement.