US OCC to proceed as scheduled with World Liberty bank charter review… Warren objects over “conflict of interest”
Summary
- The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said it will proceed as scheduled with its federal trust bank charter review for World Liberty Financial.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised conflict-of-interest concerns citing President Trump’s equity stake and called for the review to be halted, but her request was rejected.
- Jonathan Gould, the head of the OCC, defended crypto firms’ pursuit of trust bank charters and said all applications will be reviewed under the same regulatory standards.
US
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said it will proceed as scheduled with its review of the federal trust bank charter application filed by World Liberty Financial, a crypto asset company linked to US President Donald Trump. Although Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for the review to be halted, citing concerns over conflicts of interest, the request was not accepted.
According to CoinDesk on the 24th (local time), Jonathan Gould, acting Comptroller of the Currency, rejected Warren’s request to suspend the review related to a federal trust bank charter application connected to World Liberty Financial. Gould said, “Congress has made clear that the OCC has an obligation to process charter applications in a timely manner,” adding, “We will proceed under the law, not political demands.”
World Liberty Financial is a crypto asset company in which President Trump holds an equity stake, and its bank charter application will be subject to direct oversight by federal regulators. Warren has argued that it constitutes a serious conflict of interest for a company in which the president has a financial stake to receive a charter from a regulator he controls.
In response, Gould said the bank chartering process should be “nonpolitical and bipartisan,” and that the OCC would assess only whether the applicant meets regulatory standards and supervisory requirements. He stressed that all charter applications are reviewed under the same standards.
Warren pushed back strongly in a statement. “Pushing ahead with this charter review while President Trump and his family have not divested their stake in the company is an unprecedented financial conflict of interest,” she said, criticizing that “the OCC’s review is merely a formality.” She also argued that legislation on crypto market structure should not be passed without safeguards to prevent this type of corruption.
Gould has previously voiced support for the broader trend of crypto companies pursuing trust bank charters, last month. A former Bitfury blockchain executive, he has emphasized consistency in regulatory processes even as crypto firms’ attempts to obtain bank charters face backlash from traditional financial institutions.
YM Lee
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