The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is pausing the publication of a rule that would make large American banks unable to deny lending money to oil and gas companies until the Biden Administration’s pick for head of the watchdog reviews the final rule and the public comments received. OCC said on Thursday it had paused publication of its rule that aims to ensure large banks provide all customers fair access to their services. Days before the end of the Trump Administration, OCC finalized the rule under which America’s largest banks with more than $100 billion in assets cannot deny lending money to oil and gas companies. OCC released earlier this month its finalized rule to ensure the so-called fair access to banking services, under which “banks should conduct risk assessment of individual customers, rather than make broad-based decisions affecting whole categories or classes of customers, when […]