The Bank Policy Institute is reportedly weighing filing a lawsuit against the OCC over it granting more bank trust charters to crypto firms. <\/p>\n
A lobbying group for some of the largest banks that do business in the United States may be heading to court over crypto’s growing access to the U.S. banking system. The Guardian first reported<\/a> the news, citing a source familiar with the lobby’s thinking. <\/p>\n The Bank Policy Institute (BPI) \u2014 whose members include<\/a> Bank of American, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Santander, and HSBC, among many others \u2014 is considering filing a lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) over the regulator’s move to grant national trust bank charters to crypto and fintech firms. The BPI has not yet decided whether to proceed with legal action, per The Guardian.<\/p>\n At the heart of the dispute is a question of competitive fairness. Banks argue the OCC’s move grants federal approval to bank-like activities without the same supervision, controls, and safeguards required of traditional banks. <\/p>\n BPI\u2019s board includes JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs chief David Solomon, and Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, among other executives of Wall Street\u2019s largest players. <\/p>\n The banking charter pipeline for crypto firms has grown rapidly under OCC Comptroller Jonathan Gould, who was appointed<\/a> by President Donald Trump and sworn in last July. <\/p>\n In December, the OCC granted<\/a> conditional national trust bank charter approvals to several crypto firms, including BitGo, Ripple, and Paxos. A growing number of other companies have followed since. <\/p>\n Most recently, as The Defiant reported, Crypto.com received<\/a> conditional approval to charter Foris Dax National Trust Bank, and Revolut and Zerohash became the latest crypto-linked firms to file<\/a> applications with the OCC in early March.<\/p>\n