In brief
- The Bank Policy Institute is weighing a lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over its move to grant national trust charters to crypto and fintech firms.
- Banking groups warn the licensing push could allow crypto firms to offer bank-like services nationwide without facing the same regulatory oversight as traditional banks.
- Several crypto companies have received conditional approval for the national charters.
The Bank Policy Institute, which represents Wall Street heavyweights including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup, is mulling a lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency over its push to hand federal banking charters to crypto and fintech firms.
It arrives after the OCC, led by Jonathan Gould, a Trump appointee and former crypto executive, effectively lowered the bar for crypto and fintech companies to obtain national trust bank charters, granting them the right to operate across all 50 states, according to a report by The Guardian, which cited a source familiar with the matter.
Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Crypto.com, and the Trump-linked World Liberty Financial are among those that have filed or received conditional approvals.
Banks reportedly say the OCC’s…
