Ahead of Committee Markup, Warren Presses OCC to Halt Review of WLFI Bank Application Until President Divests and Eliminates All Financial Conflicts of Interest Involving[...]

Ahead of Committee Markup, Warren Presses OCC to Halt Review of WLFI Bank Application Until President Divests and Eliminates All Financial Conflicts of Interest Involving Himself or His Family and the Company

Current draft of the crypto market structure bill set for upcoming Committee vote fails to address Trump's unprecedented conflicts of interest

Warren warns approving WLFI's application while market structure legislation unresolved would further erode trust in the financial system and place the OCC in an unprecedented conflict of interest.

Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould pressing the agency to delay its review of a bank charter application submitted by World Liberty Financial (WLF), a cryptocurrency company cofounded by President Trump.

Last July, Ranking Member Warren warned Comptroller Gould about this exact scenario and asked how the agency would prevent President Trump's financial interests from influencing regulatory decisions. Gould declined to answer, calling the concerns "hypothetical."

"Those questions are no longer hypothetical. Your dismissive response, and your willingness to rubber stamp the President's dangerous agenda during your tenure as Comptroller, give me no confidence that you will fairly assess the application pursuant to the legal standard for approval. We have never seen financial conflicts or corruption of this magnitude," wrote Ranking Member Warren."

The Ranking Member further explained the consequences: "If the application is approved, you would promulgate rules that influence the profitability of the President's company. You would also be responsible for directly supervising and enforcing the law against the President's company-and its competitors. You would be in charge of these functions while serving at the pleasure of the President. In effect, for the first time in history, the President of the United States would be in charge of overseeing his own financial company."

"As Comptroller of the Currency, you are responsible for ensuring businesses and households have fair access to financial services and that our banking system remains stable. You must make decisions that benefit the American public-not President Trump's pocketbook. The integrity of our federal banking system depends on it," the Ranking Member wrote.

In the letter, Ranking Member Warren noted that Congress failed to address these conflicts when it passed the GENIUS Act and should address it in crypto market structure legislation this week. She called on the OCC to delay review of WLF's application until President Trump divests from the company and eliminates all financial conflicts of interest involving himself or his family in written commitment from the Comptroller by January 20, 2026.

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