US Banking Lobby Asks Regulators To Halt Charter Applications From Companies Like Ripple, Fidelity and Others

Traditional banks want the US banking regulator to pump the brakes on approving charter applications from digital asset firms like Ripple, Circle and Fidelity.

A group of banking and credit union lobbying associations wrote to directors of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) last week to comment on recent national bank charter applications from a slew of digital asset-adjacent firms.

The lobbying groups, including the American Bankers Association, urged the OCC to postpone considering the applications.

“Based on the Associations’ review of the limited information included in the public portions of the Applications, the Associations believe that there are significant policy and legal questions as to whether the Applicants’ proposed business plans involve the types of fiduciary activities performed by national trust banks.

The suitability of the trust charter for the Applicants is a material question of public policy. Granting these Applications could represent a fundamental departure from existing OCC precedent, and the Associations firmly believe that such a departure demands public input.”

The lobbying groups argue the public portions of the charter applications from Ripple, Circle, Fidelity Digital Assets and National Digital TR CO don’t provide “sufficient information for the public to assess or provide meaningful comment on the Applicants’ proposed business models and operations.”

Late last month, the stablecoin giant Circle applied for a national trust charter for its proposed “First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A.” If approved, the bank would oversee the management of the USDC Reserve on behalf of Circle’s US issuer.

Ripple applied for a charter earlier this month, according to Brad Garlinghouse, the firm’s chief executive. The application is part of the firm’s push into the stablecoin market with Ripple USD (RLUSD), a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Ripple on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum (ETH) blockchains.

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