The Independent Community Bankers of America has sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, arguing the agency does not have authority to grant national trust bank charters to crypto firms that neither take deposits nor serve in a fiduciary capacity. The trade group filed its complaint on October 2 in federal court in Washington, D.C.

The lawsuit asks the court to set aside three OCC actions that ICBA says opened the door to those charters: a final rule issued in March 2026, Interpretive Letter 1176 from January 2021, and the OCC’s conditional approval of Protego. ICBA also wants the court to stop the agency from relying on that rule or interpretation to issue or conditionally approve further charters.

What the lawsuit argues

ICBA’s central claim is that the OCC misread a 1978 amendment to the National Bank Act. According to the complaint, the agency used that amendment to justify chartering entities as national trust banks even when they do not accept deposits and do not act as fiduciaries.

The complaint also invokes the major questions doctrine. ICBA argues that if Congress meant to give the OCC such broad power over non-fiduciary crypto firms, it would have done so clearly and explicitly. On that basis, the group is seeking to vacate the March 2026 rule, the 2021 interpretive letter, and Protego’s approval.

Scope of the OCC approvals cited by ICBA

The filing says the OCC has approved or conditionally approved 21 trust banks since December 2025, including at least 13 crypto companies. ICBA presents that figure as evidence that the challenged policy is not limited to a single applicant, but has become a broader chartering framework for digital asset businesses.

Among the approvals listed in the complaint are conditional approvals for Circle, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos in December 2025. The suit also points to Circle’s final approval in July 2026, conditional approvals for Stripe-owned Bridge, Crypto.com, and Protego in February 2026, Coinbase on April 2, Nomura’s Laser Digital on May 29, World Liberty Trust Company in August, and conditional approvals for Agora, Catena Labs, and Bastion on September 18.

Consumer protection concerns raised by community bankers

ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey framed the case as a consumer protection issue. The group argues that federally chartered banks are associated with federal safeguards, while digital assets held at a crypto firm operating under a national trust charter do not carry the same protections.

That distinction is part of ICBA’s broader challenge to the OCC’s approach. In its view, the agency’s chartering policy risks creating confusion about what protections apply when a crypto company operates under a federal banking label.

What comes next

The case lands just months before the GENIUS Act is due to take effect in January 2027. ICBA argues that the upcoming law does not resolve its challenge and cannot retroactively validate charters the OCC has already granted or conditionally approved.

For now, the next confirmed step is the court’s consideration of ICBA’s request to vacate the challenged actions and block the OCC from using the disputed rule or interpretive letter in future charter decisions. The suit directly targets Protego’s conditional approval, but its broader aim is to unwind the legal basis for a wider set of crypto trust bank charters.

Source: beincrypto.com