Key Takeaways:
Sen. Warren sent OCC Comptroller Gould a formal letter on May 18, 2026, targeting 9 crypto trust charters including Coinbase and Ripple.Warren argues the OCC violated the National Bank Act by approving firms conducting non-fiduciary activities like staking, lending, and stablecoin issuance.The senator set a June 1, 2026, deadline for the OCC to produce charter records and any Trump family communications tied to the approvals.Under federal law, national trust companies are limited to fiduciary activities such as acting as trustee, executor, administrator, or guardian. They cannot accept deposits or make loans, and they operate without the federal deposit insurance, Community Reinvestment Act obligations, and Bank Holding Company Act restrictions that apply to full-service national banks.
None of those activities fall within the statutory definition of fiduciary trust operations, according to Warren. She described the approvals as regulatory arbitrage, a strategy that gives these firms bank-like privileges without the corresponding obligations designed to protect consumers.
“Allowing national trust companies to act like full-service national banks, while evading the suite of restrictions, safeguards, and obligations that apply to full-service national banks, would pose clear risks to consumers, create conflicts of interest, undermine the separation of banking and commerce, and threaten the safety and soundness of the banking system,” Warren wrote.
Warren’s document requests are detailed and broad. She asked Gould to provide full charter applications, including confidential exhibits, for all nine approved firms and any pending applications. She also requested legal analyses, breakdowns of fiduciary versus non-fiduciary activity volumes, and OCC analyses of how the GENIUS Act interacts with the National Bank Act.
The most politically charged request concerns communications. Warren asked the OCC to turn over all emails, text messages, meeting summaries, and call transcripts between OCC officials and President Trump, his immediate family, or anyone employed by or on behalf of the Trump family regarding any of the nine charter approvals. The deadline for all materials is June 1, 2026.
The OCC has defended limited-purpose trust charters as consistent with its existing authority for custody, settlement, and digital asset services, citing prior interpretive letters including some dating to 2021. The agency finalized a related chartering rule on March 2, 2026, which Warren says further expands permitted trust company activities beyond what Congress authorized.
