Community banks sue OCC over trust charters for crypto firms

The Independent Community Bankers of America sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on October 2, arguing that the regulator exceeded its authority by opening national trust bank charters to cryptocurrency companies, according to the trade group’s statement. The suit was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. It challenges a March 2026 final rule and Interpretive Letter No. 1176, which ICBA asks the court to find unlawful.

ICBA alleges the OCC has gone beyond what the National Bank Act allows in chartering trust banks that perform fiduciary activities, according to American Banker, which obtained the complaint. The filing says the agency has approved, conditionally or otherwise, 21 trust banks during the Trump administration. The publication named Coinbase, Circle and the Trump family-linked World Liberty Financial among the crypto companies approved. The GENIUS Act made trust charters more attractive to crypto firms because it allows them to become federal qualified payment stablecoin issuers, American Banker reported.

ICBA president and chief executive Rebeca Romero Rainey said Congress did not create the national trust charter as a “side door into the banking system” for crypto firms seeking the credibility of a federal bank charter, according to Cointelegraph. She said such charters come without the Community Reinvestment Act obligations, consolidated supervision, capital and liquidity standards and deposit insurance that apply to insured banks, and that digital assets held at a crypto firm under a trust charter do not carry the safeguards consumers expect from a federally chartered bank. ICBA is asking the court to return the OCC to its statutory limits.

ICBA also objected to Block’s application for a national trust bank charter, according to the group’s newsletter. The OCC had not responded to a request for comment when Cointelegraph published its report.

Crypto firms have pursued trust charters in growing numbers. Dakota, a stablecoin infrastructure company, applied for one on August 3, and Circle has received full approval to establish Circle National Trust Bank.