On Friday, October 2, 2026, CoinDesk reported that a prominent U.S. community banking trade group sued the federal agency that issues national bank charters, challenging its approval of national trust bank status for cryptocurrency companies.
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) filed the lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in federal court on Friday. The group argues the agency has exceeded its legal authority under the National Bank Act by claiming sweeping new powers to charter national trust banks. It also contends the approach lets crypto firms enter the U.S. banking system without the regulatory oversight community banks face, placing those smaller lenders at a severe competitive disadvantage.
ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said in a statement that Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side entrance for crypto firms seeking the credibility of a federal charter. She said such firms do not face the same obligations on capital, liquidity, and supervision, nor the requirement for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation coverage.
The ICBA is among the largest banking advocacy
The ICBA is among the largest banking advocacy organizations in the country and typically represents smaller institutions. It also helped lead opposition to the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which failed to advance in the Senate last month. Bankers objected in part because the bill’s stablecoin provisions, they argued, did not protect them from direct competition for the deposit accounts central to their business. The group’s latest action turns its focus to the trust charters that crypto firms are pursuing as an entry point into the U.S. banking and payments system.
The OCC has granted a steady stream of trust charters to crypto firms. CoinDesk noted that these companies generally do not follow the same business model as typical community banks or plan to offer the same services. They do not, for instance, provide the cash deposit accounts for which FDIC insurance is designed and required.
In a statement issued after the article’s publication, Paige Pidano Paridon, executive vice president and co-head of regulatory affairs at the Bank Policy Institute, said the group supports bringing new products and services into the regulated banking system, provided participants face the same rules and responsibilities as other chartered institutions performing the same activities. She said firms should receive trust charters only if they confine themselves to trust activities, and that those seeking to engage in traditional banking should apply for full-service bank charters. Rigorous, uniform standards, she added, are essential to a competitive, safe and resilient banking system.
Banking regulators have credited the industry’s pursuit
Banking regulators have credited the industry’s pursuit of national trust charters with bringing a resurgence of new banking names after a lengthy drought. Some of the trust banks began as crypto-focused institutions, such as Protego and Erebor. Others come from established crypto businesses, including Coinbase, Circle and Crypto.com.
A recent addition is World Liberty Financial, a firm partly owned by President Donald Trump and his family. Its charter approval drew criticism from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who accused the agency of permitting presidential corruption and wrote on X that the charter gives Trump and his family a new way to profit.
Last month, the OCC also granted a full national bank charter to OpenReserve Bank, a blockchain bank funded by several crypto investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Crypto and Coinbase Ventures.
