On November 7, 2016, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) announced that the agency will begin phasing in a new, centralized online system for processing licensing and public welfare investment applications and notices filed by national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches and agencies (collectively, “banks”).

The new Central Application Tracking System (“CATS”) will be available through BankNet, the agency’s existing page for interfacing with banks electronically, and will allow banks to grant different authorization levels to staff and authorized third-party agents involved in preparing OCC filings.

CATS will become available to “frequent” users of the existing e-Corp and CD-1 Invest systems on January 17, 2017, to other e-Corp and CD-1 Invest users in the spring of 2017, and to all other banks in late spring 2017.  The OCC will notify banks to which of the three categories they belong.  The OCC will retire e-Corp and CD-1 Invest on a similar rolling schedule, with access to these tools ending for each bank two weeks after that bank’s CATS access begins.  The agency will conduct CATS training webinars for BankNet users before the transition, and it will continue to accept paper filings.