OKLAHOMA CITY – The State Banking Board approved the largest-ever reduction in assessments paid by Oklahoma state-chartered banks, State Bank Commissioner Mick Thompson announced last Thursday.
He also reported that the State Credit Union Board approved a discount in assessments collected from Oklahoma state-chartered credit unions.
Thompson suggested several alternatives for discounting assessments that are expected to save state-chartered banks more than $7 million in regulatory costs next year.
For 2026, the standard assessment rate will be discounted by 75% for each bank with assets totaling less than $1 billion, by 40% for each bank with assets of at least $1 billion but less than $2 billion, and by 30% for banks with $2 billion or more in assets.
Thompson said the sliding scale discount should result in a comparable overall reduction for all banks, because the standard rate for larger institutions is already significantly reduced as asset size grows larger.
A reduction in assessments is one of the ways the Banking Department can reduce regulatory burden on state-chartered institutions, Thompson said. He also noted that banks are spending more than ever on fraud prevention to protect depositors’ money – “and this reduction in regulatory costs can result in more money available for those expenses.”
With this year’s reduction, the Banking Department has reduced assessments to the industry more than $41 million over the last 15 years, the commissioner said.
He presented the board with a 2026 budget that showed how the Banking Department can continue to operate efficiently even with a significant reduction in assessments. “As a self-funded agency, revenue should correspond to expenditures, and we have become much more efficient over the past few years so that we can reduce assessments without reducing services,” Thompson said.
Meanwhile, the State Credit Union Board approved a 30% discount in the assessments collected from Oklahoma state-chartered credit unions, he said.
The board approved the discount during its last meeting of the year, and is based on the commissioner’s budget estimates for 2026.
Thompson said the Banking Department’s goal is to operate on a “break-even” budget, and when funds are not needed to operate the department, “that money should remain with the credit unions to support member services.”
This new reduction will allow the department to fully fund credit union supervision while also reducing regulatory burden on state-chartered institutions, Thompson said.
Most regulations of financial institutions are issued from the federal government, and the states cannot directly eliminate that burden, he said. However, any savings achieved by a reduction in assessments can be redirected by the credit unions toward other expenses and member services, Thompson pointed out.
Oklahoma has 139 state-chartered banks and nine state-chartered credit unions, records reflect.
A “state profile” of Oklahoma banks in the second quarter of this year, which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued last month, reported Oklahoma had 174 state-chartered and national banks. Of those institutions: • 4 had assets exceeding $10 billion.
• 18 had assets of more than $1 billion up to $10 billion.
• 66 had assets of more than $250 million up to $1 billion.
• 44 had assets ranging from $100 million to $250 million.
• 42 banks had assets of less than $100 million each.