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Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Marks Sesquicentennial Year

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) turns 150 today.

"The OCC has a long heritage of public service, regulating and supervising national banks and now federal savings associations," said the 30^th Comptroller of the Currency Thomas J. Curry. "I am especially proud to lead the agency as it achieves this milestone in its distinguished history."

President Abraham Lincoln founded the agency when he signed the National Currency Act on February 25, 1863, making the OCC the oldest regulatory agency of the U.S. government. The National Currency Act was revised in 1864 as the National Bank Act. Hugh McCulloch , the first Comptroller, held the office between 1863 and 1865.

Today, more than 3,800 OCC employees work from 93 locations across the country to ensure that the more than 1,800 national banks and federal savings associations operate in a safe and sound manner, provide fair access to financial services, treat customers fairly, and comply with applicable laws and regulations to meet the needs of the communities they serve. The banks and thrifts supervised by the OCC range in size from very small community banks with less than $100 million in assets to the nation's largest financial institutions with assets exceeding $1 trillion. More than 1,600 of the banks and thrifts that OCC supervises are small community banks with less than $1 billion in assets that play a vital role in meeting the financial needs of communities across the nation.