In a motion to dismiss filed last week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency argued that it cannot be sued over its plans for a special purpose national bank charter, since that charter has yet to be finalized.

State banking regulators sued the OCC in April, claiming the federal banking agency overstepped its legal authority by proposing the charter for nonbanks or financial technology companies. Many fintechs have expressed interest in the federal charter that would potentially exempt them from having to deal with 50 individual state regulators.

In its response filed Friday, the OCC laid out an argument for why the Conference of State Bank Supervisors can't prove harm caused by the fintech charters if no applications have even been received or issued. (The judge ordered the OCC to refile the motion due to “excessive” footnotes, and the agency submitted a revised brief Wednesday afternoon.)