OCC national trust charter legal challenge over crypto firms

At issue is the OCC’s March 2026 rule that broadened the scope of national trust bank charters to include non‑fiduciary activities related to trust operations, a change the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) says exceeds statutory authority. On October 2, 2026 the ICBA sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asking the court to vacate the OCC’s final rule and Interpretive Letter N1176. The complaint contends the agency replaced the narrower phrase “fiduciary activities” with the statute’s broader wording — “the operations of a trust company and activities related thereto” — and that this opens a back door for digital asset firms to obtain national charters while avoiding obligations such as FDIC insurance, Community Reinvestment Act duties, and the capital and liquidity framework that apply to insured depository institutions.

The dispute arrives after a wave of approvals and conditional approvals the OCC granted to entities tied to digital assets. Reporting in recent weeks counts roughly 21 trust bank approvals, 13 of them linked to crypto, and notes the OCC received about 40 de novo charter applications over roughly 18 months, with 23 involving digital assets. Named firms in the agency’s process include Circle (First National Digital Currency Bank / Circle National Trust), Ripple National Trust Bank, BitGo, Paxos, Coinbase, Foris DAX, Bridge, Laser Digital, Agora, Catena and Bastion, among others. ICBA highlights risk and consumer‑protection concerns and argues that the rule permits nonfiduciary custody, stablecoin-related activities, reserve management, conversion, payments and settlement to be housed inside a trust charter under lighter standards.

Relief sought includes vacatur of the rule and declaratory and injunctive remedies; how the court rules will shape whether the national trust charter becomes a durable federal route for crypto custody and stablecoin infrastructure or whether approvals built on the rule must be narrowed, restructured into affiliates or shifted to state or partner‑bank arrangements. The OCC has previously said that, when a party with standing disputes whether the National Bank Act authorizes these charters, courts must exercise independent judgment — a legal test the ICBA has now asked the court to apply.