The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) filed a lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in federal court in Washington on October 2. The legal action comes two weeks after the agency approved Agora National Trust Bank, Catena Trust Bank, and Bastion Platforms.
According to the complaint reported by American Banker, the ICBA is asking the court to vacate the OCC's national trust bank rule and Interpretive Letter 1176. The banking group argues that the agency exceeded its authority by expanding limited-purpose trust charters to accommodate fintech and crypto firms under a lighter regulatory framework than insured banks face.
The ICBA stated that the OCC has approved or conditionally approved 21 trust banks, with 13 of those tied to cryptocurrency. Previous approvals included firms such as BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paxos, Ripple-linked applicants, Coinbase, and Foris DAX, the parent company of Crypto.com.
The dispute centers on changes finalized in the OCC's national trust bank rule, which replaced the phrase “fiduciary activities” with the broader statutory wording “the operations of a trust company and activities related thereto.” The OCC maintains that this language keeps its chartering authority intact and points to 12 U.S.C. 24(Seventh) as authority for nonfiduciary custody and related activities. Conversely, the ICBA argues the rule stretches limited-purpose charters to cover non-depository, non-fiduciary crypto businesses.
Business plans among the approved entities vary widely:
- Coinbase: Digital asset custody as a fiduciary alongside transactional services.
- Agora: Dollar-backed stablecoin issuance, reserve maintenance, nonfiduciary custody, and payment and settlement services.
- Catena: Custody, investment management, and trust services combined with conversion, clearing, and execution.
- Bastion: White-label stablecoin issuance, custodial wallets, conversion, and issuer services.
The ICBA is seeking a vacatur as well as declaratory and injunctive relief. Comptroller Jonathan Gould noted in August that the agency had received 40 de novo charter applications over roughly an 18-month period, with 23 involving digital assets. Pending applicants include ZeroHash, Kraken's Payward, and EDX Trust, leaving open the question of how the OCC will process these applications while the lawsuit proceeds.
If the court rules in favor of the OCC, the national trust bank structure will provide a firmer federal route for crypto custody and stablecoin infrastructure. Conversely, if the court vacates or narrows the rule, the impact will affect plans involving stablecoin issuance, reserves, nonfiduciary custody, conversion, payments, and settlement, potentially forcing firms to restructure their activities.
