The conventional banking sector has attempted to decelerate the influx of entities striving for charters as trust banks serving clients in digital assets. Jonathan Gould, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, remarked that such reluctance could “risk reversing innovations.”
“The OCC receives near daily communications from current national banks about their own ambitions for engaging and innovative offerings,” he stated at the Blockchain Association’s policy summit on Monday in Washington. “This consistently strengthens my confidence in the OCC’s capacity to supervise new entrants and evolving operations of existing banks in a fair and impartial manner.”
Gould noted that the application process for new charters—de novo banks—had virtually ground to a halt but has now risen to 14 applicants in the past year, many linked to digital assets and fintech.
“There is simply no grounds for treating digital assets differently,” he affirmed. “Moreover, it is crucial that we do not restrict banks, including present national trust banks, to outdated technologies or business models.”
Gould’s agency, which oversees national banks and trusts, is the sole federal authority for bank charters. The OCC had been slow in approving charters for crypto enterprises, with Anchorage Digital being the only OCC-licensed crypto bank for several years. However, last month, Erebor became the first crypto bank to receive a provisional charter under Gould’s leadership.
Under President Donald Trump’s administration, the banking regulator has rapidly shifted away from prior caution towards crypto banking, and Gould mentioned that the OCC and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are jointly preparing regulations to eliminate “reputation risk” from their oversight practices.
Gould suggested that the financial system must “transition from the telegraph to the blockchain.”
He also cautioned that his agency is evaluating banks’ debanking practices regarding the cessation of services for crypto firms and their leaders.
Read More: Coinbase Faces Flak from Traditional Bankers on Its Push for Trust Bank Charter
