Warren Presses OCC on Approval of Special Charters for Crypto Companies Seeking to Act Like Banks While Evading Bank Rules

Warren Presses OCC on Approval of Special Charters for Crypto Companies Seeking to Act Like Banks While Evading Bank Rules

"Allowing national trust companies to act like full-service national banks, while evading the suite of restrictions, safeguards, and obligations that apply to full-service national banks, would pose clear risks to consumers, create conflicts of interest, undermine the separation of banking and commerce, and threaten the safety and soundness of the banking system."

Text of 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, raising concerns over his decision to improperly grant national trust charters to companies that do not qualify under the National Bank Act. In the letter, Warren argues the agency's actions undermine protections designed to shield Americans from financial risk.

"(S)ince December 2025, you have approved at least nine national trust charters for crypto companies that intend to engage in activities that appear to go far beyond the narrow set of activities permitted by law. These companies are effectively crypto banks that want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank," wrote the Senator. "Your decision to facilitate this regulatory arbitrage not only conflicts with federal law, it also poses serious risks to consumers, the safety and soundness of the banking system, and the separation of banking and commerce."

"Despite the clear legal distinction between national trust companies and full-service national banks, the OCC has recently approved at least nine national trust company charters-with several more applications pending-for companies that look like crypto banks, not trust companies. Many of the business plans do not include specific fiduciary trust activities and none imply that bona fide fiduciary trust activities would be the primary business of the trust company. The business plans include language that suggests the companies intend to engage in non-fiduciary custodial activities, facilitating payments and lending activities, and conducting stablecoin activities closely related to deposit-taking," the Senator continued.

Ranking Member Warren concluded the letter requesting the full charter application for all nine approved companies, legal analyses supporting the OCC's decisions, and all communications between OCC officials and the White House or Trump family members regarding the charter approvals by June 1, 2026.

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