The US banking trade has mounted a coordinated problem to the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Foreign money’s (OCC) strategy. The pushback targets the regulator’s efforts to combine cryptocurrency companies into the federal banking system.
On December 12, OCC issued conditional approval of nationwide belief charters for 5 digital asset companies, together with Ripple, Constancy, Paxos, First Nationwide Digital Foreign money Financial institution, and BitGo. The financial institution regulator harassed that the crypto candidates underwent the identical “rigorous review” as any nationwide financial institution constitution applicant.
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US Banking Business Challenges OCC’s Transfer
Nonetheless, the American Bankers Affiliation (ABA) and the Unbiased Group Bankers of America (ICBA) argue that the OCC’s actions create a two-tier banking system.
Their central declare is that fintech and crypto companies are being granted prestigious nationwide charters with out carrying Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Corp. (FDIC) protection or assembly conventional capital and liquidity requirements required of full-service banks.
The teams contend that this construction encourages what they describe as regulatory arbitrage on the federal degree.
By securing a nationwide constitution, the crypto companies can profit from federal preemption of state cash transmitter legal guidelines. On the identical time, they keep away from most of the compliance obligations that apply to insured depository establishments.
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ABA President Rob Nichols mentioned the approvals “blur the lines” of what constitutes a financial institution. He additional argues that this erosion of definitions dangers weakening the integrity of the constitution itself.
In his view, increasing belief powers to companies that don’t carry out conventional fiduciary duties creates a category of establishments that resemble banks in identify and scope however lack comparable oversight.
In the meantime, their concern extends past competitors.
Banking teams warn that customers could wrestle to differentiate between insured banks and nationwide belief establishments holding massive volumes of uninsured crypto belongings.
They argue that the OCC has not adequately defined how it will handle the failure of such an entity, notably if it had been holding billions of {dollars} in digital belongings outdoors the standard security web.
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ICBA Desires the Charters Halted
The ICBA additionally instantly challenged the OCC’s statutory authority to difficulty the charters.
We oppose the OCC’s conditional approval of 5 nationwide belief financial institution constitution purposes from nonbank fintechs. We’ve repeatedly mentioned the OCC lacks statutory authority to develop belief powers and that the sudden inflow of purposes threatens customers and the monetary…
— Unbiased Group Bankers of America (@ICBA) December 12, 2025
The group centered its criticism on Interpretive Letter No. 1176. This steering enabled belief banks to have interaction in non-fiduciary actions comparable to custody of stablecoin reserves.
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ICBA President Rebeca Romero Rainey described the transfer as a “dramatic policy change” that stretches the nationwide belief constitution past its historic function.
“The OCC’s dramatic policy change under Interpretive Letter #1176 is a departure from the role of conventional trust companies and allows for an inconsistent regulatory framework that threatens financial instability — requiring the agency to change course,” Rainey added.
The group argues that the OCC is permitting non-bank fintech companies to successfully borrow the credibility of the US banking system whereas avoiding the “full scope” of laws imposed on insured establishments.
Contemplating this, each commerce teams have referred to as for a direct pause and rescission of the approvals.
They warn that the present framework may produce establishments that the OCC is “not equipped to resolve in an orderly way.” Based on them, such a failure may depart conventional banks and the broader monetary system uncovered.
