Breaking: ABA Tells OCC to Delay Charter Review for Ripple, Coinbase, Circle

The American Banking Association (ABA) has called out the OCC to immediately stop the review of the national bank charter of cryptocurrency firms. This includes Ripple, Coinbase, Circle, and other crypto-related applications.

ABA Asks OCC to Stop Charter Review of Ripple, Coinbase, Others

In a letter to the OCC, the largest banking lobby in the United States, notified the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to slow down on issuing new crypto charter applications. They said the process should be paused until Congress is done writing the rules under which they will operate.

“We urge the OCC to be patient, not measure its application decisioning progress against traditional timelines, and allow each charter applicant’s regulatory responsibilities to come fully into view before moving a charter application forward,” ABA said.

This comes as crypto firms continue to submit an application for a national bank charter. The ABA had previously expressed opposition towards Ripple’s application back in July, claiming it could create systemic risk for the banking industry.

The association complained in the new release about the recent practice of OCC in conditioning its approval of charters upon the applicant’s compliance with the GENIUS Act. They claimed that the full regulatory implementation of the law is still several years away, as there are five agencies still needing to complete their own rulemaking.

The ABA strongly encouraged the regulator to ensure that, as part of its receivership powers and related practices, its capacities are sufficient to respond to any insolvency-risk concerns posed by any current or potential OCC charter applicant.

Which Crypto Firms Are Still Awaiting Approval?

A number of crypto firms are at risk of seeing their charter application delayed amid the new pushback. Top of the list is Ripple’s charter filing. The firm was among the first to bid for a national bank in the U.S. Last month, the OCC granted the XRP issuer conditional approval, which prompted more pushback from the ABA.

This essentially means it was only a matter of time before the firm gains a full approval of their license. To add, World Liberty Financial submitted its application to become a federally chartered national trust bank. A couple of eyebrows were raised in the political space with the filing, with Senator Warren even calling for an immediate halt at the time.

Apart from Ripple, other crypto organizations include Circle, BitGo, Paxos, Coinbase, and Nomura’s Laser Digital. However, the ABA has stuck to its claim on this progression.

They wrote a letter to lawmakers last month, explaining how crypto organizations have managed to beat the prohibition of earning interest, as per the GENIUS Act, through affiliated exchanges.