A banking lobby group in the United States is considering legal action against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over the agency’s issuance of trust bank charters to crypto companies.
Conclusion
- The Institute for Banking Policy is considering legal action against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over its decision to grant national fiduciary charters to crypto companies.
- Banking groups argue that the OCC ignored earlier warnings from industry bodies and state regulators when it moved to approve licenses for crypto companies.
An unnamed source familiar with the “lobby’s thinking” told The Guardian that the Bank Policy Institute plans to sue the OCC for ignoring previous warnings from banking groups and state regulators and proceeding with a reinterpretation of federal licensing rules to grant national fiduciary charters to crypto companies. According to the group, this could put Americans and the financial system at risk.
Under the leadership of Jonathan Gould, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, the OCC issued the first batch of approvals for national trust bank charters to crypto companies, including Ripple, BitGo and Paxos, among others. Since then, several other companies have followed suit with similar approvals.
Once approved, the trust bank charter allows these companies to act as trust banks and provide asset custody and safekeeping services.
In October, BPI issued a statement calling on the OCC to reject the applications of crypto companies, including Ripple and Circle, because it argued that granting such charters could endanger the financial system.
“The BPI warns that approving this path, and giving companies a more relaxed regulatory choice when offering bank-like products, could blur the legal boundaries of what constitutes a ‘bank’, increase systemic risk and undermine the credibility of the national banking charter itself,” it said at the time.
According to The Guardian, BPI has not yet decided whether it intends to take legal action against the OCC. However, the report noted that BPI was among a group of banks that had previously taken legal action against the Federal Reserve as part of its stress test in late 2024, which the central bank later agreed to reconsider.
Similar notices of approval of the OCC’s crypto charter have been issued by the Independent Community Bankers of America, which represent thousands of small lenders. Recently, ICBA urged the OCC to withdraw or modify its proposal to license crypto companies.
As previously reported by crypto.news, Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial applied for charter in January, and the move drew a lot of attention from Senator Elizabeth Warren over a possible conflict of interest.
However, during a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Gould said the agency is continuing to process the application.
