- ICBA sued the OCC and Comptroller Jonathan Gould in Washington DC federal court.
- The lawsuit also targets a key 2026 chartering rule and Protego’s 2021 approval.
- The OCC has approved 21 national trust bank charters so far, 13 to crypto firms.
The Independent Community Bankers of America sued the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday, challenging the legal basis for a wave of national trust bank charters granted to cryptocurrency firms and asking a federal court to unwind one of them outright.
The complaint, ICBA v. OCC, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia under case number 1:26-cv-03441. It names the OCC and Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, sued in his official capacity, as defendants.
Two Targets, Three Legal Claims
ICBA is asking the court to vacate the OCC’s chartering rule, published in the Federal Register on March 2, 2026, and Interpretive Letter 1176, issued in January 2021, along with Protego Trust Company’s 2021 conditional approval as a national trust bank.
The complaint raises three APA counts:
- That the rule exceeds the OCC’s authority under the National Bank Act
- That the interpretive letter was adopted without the notice-and-comment process required for binding agency rules.
- That Protego’s charter is unlawful because it depends on both defective actions.
The Statutory Argument
ICBA’s core legal theory rests on reading the National Bank Act as authorizing only three categories of national bank: deposit-taking institutions engaged in “the business of banking,” bankers’ banks that serve other depository institutions, and trust banks performing fiduciary duties such as acting as trustee or estate administrator.
The complaint argues the OCC has no statutory basis to charter a fourth category, limited-purpose trust banks that are neither depository nor fiduciary, and cites a 1978 amendment to the Act that it says the OCC has misread to claim that authority.
Related: ECB Board Member Argues Why Central Banks Need to Be On-Chain
Competitive Harm Cited
The complaint says the OCC has approved or conditionally approved 21 national trust bank charters, 13 of them held by cryptocurrency companies. It names two unidentified ICBA member banks, each holding under $2.5 billion in assets, that it says spend more than $1.5 million annually on FDIC assessments and Community Reinvestment Act compliance that Protego and similar crypto trust banks do not face. Both banks, according to the filing, have already lost deposit business this year to firms operating under the newer charter.
Safety Concerns
Beyond cost, ICBA argues the charters expose consumers and the financial system to risk, noting the OCC has not managed an uninsured bank receivership in nearly a century and that cryptocurrency markets are prone to volatility and cybercrime.
Current Status
No ruling has been issued, and the OCC and Protego have not filed a public response to the complaint.
Related: 24 Hour Crypto Recap: Here’s What Happened in the Market
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