OCC Comptroller Prioritizes New Bank Charters

In an address before the Blockchain Association, OCC Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould emphasized an urgent need to "reinvigorate" the chartering of new banks and for "entities that engage in activities involving digital assets and other novel technologies" to "have a pathway to become federally supervised banks." 

Comptroller Gould asserted that the process of chartering new banks stagnated between 2011 and 2024 due to regulators signaling that new charters were unwelcome. He argued that this "myopic decision" reduced competition and was not "legally justifiable." He said that the OCC is now reversing this trend having already received 14 de novo charter applications in 2025, a number nearly equal to the previous four years combined. He highlighted that several pending applications involve national trust banks or entities engaged in digital asset activities. 

Mr. Gould asserted that national trust banks are legally authorized to engage in nonfiduciary custody activities, which he argued included the custody of digital assets. He said that there is "simply no justification for [treating] digital assets differently" than other assets held electronically by banks. He noted that state trust companies, in jurisdictions like New York and South Dakota, are already authorized to provide digital asset services. He argued that the federal banking system must adapt to new technologies, such as blockchain, to remain relevant and support the modern economy.