On October 2, a community banking trade association filed a lawsuit against the OCC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging the agency's authority to grant national trust bank charters to cryptocurrency companies. The complaint alleges that the OCC exceeded its authority under the National Bank Act (NBA) and violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by permitting institutions that neither accept deposits nor primarily engage in fiduciary activities to obtain national trust bank charters.
The lawsuit challenges the OCC's March 2026 final rule expanding the permissible activities of national trust banks (previously discussed here), its 2021 Interpretive Letter 1176, and the conditional approval of a cryptocurrency company's national trust bank charter. According to the trade association, these actions improperly expand the OCC's chartering authority and allow cryptocurrency companies to offer financial services without complying with certain requirements applicable to traditional banks. Specifically, the complaint alleges.
The trade association seeks to vacate the final rule, Interpretive Letter 1176, and the challenged conditional charter approval. It also requests injunctive relief preventing the OCC from relying on the rule or interpretive letter to approve additional charters.
Putting It Into Practice: The lawsuit adds uncertainty to the OCC's expanding national trust bank chartering framework, which has attracted growing interest from cryptocurrency and fintech companies. The OCC recently clarified its authority to permit national trust banks to conduct certain non-fiduciary activities. The litigation now places that interpretation before a federal court and could affect both existing approvals and future charter applications. Digital asset companies pursuing national trust bank charters should monitor the litigation and evaluate how potential changes to the OCC's authority could affect their proposed activities and chartering strategies.
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