Quick wins for a faster PC:
Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →iTechGuides is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), a trade association for community banks, filed suit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on October 2, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It challenges the OCC’s March 2, 2026 final rule related to Interpretive Letter 1176, arguing that the agency exceeded its authority by allowing crypto companies to conduct substantial non-fiduciary activities under national trust bank charters. The available record establishes a newly filed challenge, not a court ruling.
What is ICBA challenging?
ICBA asks the court to find unlawful both the OCC’s March 2026 rule and the agency action related to Interpretive Letter 1176. The dispute is about how much activity a national trust bank charter can cover—not simply whether a particular crypto company may use the word “bank.”
ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said, “The OCC’s decision to allow companies to obtain national trust bank charters to conduct substantial non-fiduciary activities exceeds the authority Congress granted the agency.” That is the plaintiff’s legal position, not a finding by a judge.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
Why does the kind of bank charter matter?
A national trust bank charter is not automatically equivalent to an ordinary retail bank charter. The OCC’s decision letter for Ripple describes trust-company work alongside certain non-fiduciary services, including custody and safekeeping. It says Ripple proposed to manage a segregated liquid-asset reserve backing RLUSD, act as collateral trustee for RLUSD holders, and provide crypto custody to institutional customers.
ICBA argues that a national trust charter can confer the credibility of a federal bank charter while avoiding safeguards it associates with insured depository institutions, including deposit insurance, capital and liquidity requirements, consolidated supervision, and Community Reinvestment Act obligations. The dispute therefore raises questions about the charter’s permitted activities, whether it involves deposit-taking or FDIC insurance, and which prudential and community-lending rules apply. The cited record does not provide a complete regulatory comparison across all charter types, so those features should not be treated as identical for every institution.
The OCC’s Ripple decision letter also reports that, as of September 30, 2025, OCC-supervised uninsured national trust banks had $6.8 trillion in assets under administration: $1.6 trillion in custody and safekeeping accounts and $5.2 trillion in fiduciary accounts. Those figures cover the category cited by the OCC, not crypto trust banks alone.
Which crypto companies are involved, and what did the OCC approve?
The OCC announced a group of conditional decisions on December 12, 2025. The actions were not all the same: some were approvals for new national trust banks, while others were approvals to convert existing institutions. The OCC said it considered each application on its individual merits and made the approvals subject to conditions.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems| Company | OCC action | Date and status |
|---|---|---|
| First National Digital Currency Bank | New national trust bank charter | Conditional approval announced December 12, 2025 |
| Ripple National Trust Bank | New national trust bank charter | Conditional approval announced December 12, 2025 |
| BitGo Bank & Trust | Conversion to a national trust bank | Conditional conversion approval announced December 12, 2025 |
| Fidelity Digital Assets | Conversion to a national trust bank | Conditional conversion approval announced December 12, 2025 |
| Paxos | Conversion to a national trust bank | Conditional conversion approval announced December 12, 2025 |
| Coinbase National Trust Company | Separate application decision entry, Corporate Decision 1370 | Listed April 2, 2026; distinct from the December 2025 batch |
A conditional approval is not the same as an unconditional final operating authorization. In particular, Coinbase’s separate April 2026 entry should not be conflated with Ripple’s December 2025 conditional approval or treated as the same decision.
How do the OCC and ICBA describe the issue?
The OCC says its decisions were conditional and application-specific, made under applicable statutory and regulatory factors. In its December 12, 2025 announcement, Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould said, “New entrants into the federal banking sector are good for consumers, the banking industry and the economy.” The agency’s stated position and ICBA’s objection frame the legal question: whether the OCC may authorize the activities at issue under the statutory authority Congress gave it.
In the same announcement, the OCC described the federal banking system as comprising more than 1,000 national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches of foreign banking organizations. The agency said those institutions conducted approximately 67 percent of U.S. banking activity and held more than $17 trillion in combined assets and more than $85 trillion in assets under control. These are OCC figures for the broader federal banking system, not measures of crypto-charter activity.
How many crypto trust banks are covered?
A Gizmodo report published October 6, 2026, said the complaint counts 21 trust banks approved or conditionally approved under the Trump administration, at least 13 of them crypto companies. Those are counts attributed to the complaint as reported by Gizmodo; they are not an independently verified OCC aggregate.
Recommended Free Tools
What is known about the case now?
As of the cited materials available for this article, the suit is newly filed and no court ruling is established. The central unresolved issue is how the court will interpret the OCC’s authority over national trust bank charters and the challenged rule. The filing itself does not show that the court has accepted ICBA’s allegations.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
