Community bankers sue the OCC over crypto trust charters

The Independent Community Bankers of America sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on 2 October 2026, challenging a rule that opens national trust bank charters to non-fiduciary crypto firms.

The trade group filed the case in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, according to its own announcement of the suit. The target is a final rule the OCC issued on 2 March 2026, which let companies doing non-fiduciary work, including digital asset activities, obtain national trust bank charters. Previously that pathway was limited to fiduciary custody arrangements.

The National Bank Act argument

ICBA argues in the suit that the regulator is exercising sweeping powers to charter national trust banks that are not authorised by the National Bank Act. The group also contends that the charters let firms sidestep obligations that bind community banks, naming the Community Reinvestment Act and FDIC insurance, and that crypto trust banks face lighter oversight, leaving small banks at a severe competitive disadvantage. It further argues that uninsured entities could use the charters to sidestep state consumer protections.

All of those points are the plaintiff’s arguments, not court findings. An OCC spokesperson said the agency does not comment on litigation.

Rebeca Romero Rainey, ICBA’s president and chief executive, said in the announcement: “Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side door into the banking system for crypto firms seeking the credibility of a federal bank charter”.

Why it matters for the crypto-banking pipeline

The case tests the legal limits of the OCC’s authority to charter crypto firms without new congressional action, the pathway used by applicants including Coinbase National Trust and Ripple. ICBA has opposed those applications since 2025. The suit lands weeks after the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act failed to advance in the US Senate in September 2026, partly over stablecoin provisions, with ICBA among the groups pushing back. Regulators have credited the pursuit of national trust charters with a resurgence in new banking names after a lengthy drought, and in September the OCC granted a full national bank charter to OpenReserve Bank, a blockchain bank funded by investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Jump Capital and Coinbase Ventures.

Separately, the Bank Policy Institute, which represents large banks, backs the broad principle at stake. Paige Pidano Paridon, the group’s executive vice president and co-head of regulatory affairs, said firms engaging in bank-regulated activities should face the same rules as every other chartered institution doing the same work. If they want to engage in traditional banking activities, she added, they should seek full-service banking charters.