Trump-backed World Liberty gets conditional bank charter approval
The OCC conditionally approved a national trust bank charter for World Liberty, a Trump family-backed firm, clearing a path for it to issue stablecoins.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which regulates national banks in the US, issued conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Co. to operate as a national trust bank. The Trump family is backing the firm. Conditional approval means World Liberty must meet certain requirements before it can actually start operating. The charter would let the company issue stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies designed to hold a steady value.
A trust bank charter is a specific license from federal regulators. It allows a company to act like a bank in certain ways without being a full commercial bank. A trust bank can hold assets, manage accounts, and offer custodial services. It can also issue stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency that tries to maintain a fixed price by being backed by real assets like dollars or Treasury bonds held in reserve. The key difference from a regular bank is the narrower scope of what a trust bank can do.
Trust bank charters have become a pathway for crypto firms to enter traditional banking. They sidestep some of the regulatory hurdles a full commercial bank charter requires. The OCC has approved a handful of trust bank charters for crypto companies in recent years. This is part of a broader effort by regulators to figure out how crypto firms fit into the regulated banking system.
For World Liberty, the conditional approval is a major step forward but not the finish line. The company still has to satisfy the OCC's conditions before it can legally operate. Those conditions typically include things like hiring qualified staff, setting up proper compliance systems, proving sufficient capitalization, and passing final inspections. The company has not yet detailed what the specific conditions are.
The approval does not mean World Liberty can immediately issue stablecoins or accept customer deposits. It means the OCC has determined the firm meets basic standards to operate as a trust bank if it clears the remaining hurdles. Questions remain about how quickly World Liberty can move through the conditional approval process and which regulators will oversee its stablecoin operations once it launches.
First reported by CNBC - Read the full CNBC report.