A top regulator predicted Wednesday that financial technology firms would begin to apply as early as the next month or two for specialty national banking licenses, saying the industry has largely been undeterred by a pending legal challenge to the federal government’s plan to provide a pathway for online lenders and payment companies to more directly compete with traditional banks.

Joseph Otting, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said he was “disappointed” that the New York Department of Financial Services and other state regulators renewed their legal challenge to the agency’s plan to accept national bank charter applications from so-called fintech companies. Speaking at the Georgetown University Law Center, Otting voiced confidence the OCC would prevail in court and said the lawsuit was “harming consumers.”