Rain seeks US trust bank charter days after OCC sued over crypto charters

Rain joins a growing queue of crypto firms seeking federal trust charters, while community banks have just asked a court to overturn the OCC rules underpinning them. Stablecoin payments infrastructure provider Rain has filed an application to establish a national trust bank headquartered in New York, adding to a wave of crypto companies seeking bank charters over the last year. Rain said Monday it >filed the application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Rain National Trust Bank. If approved, the bank would be able to provide fiduciary custody of digital assets and US dollars for institutional clients, provide reserve management for permitted stablecoin issuers and issue and redeem dollar-backed stablecoins in accordance with the GENIUS Act. Former Square Financial Services chief financial officer Brandon Soto will serve as president and CEO of the proposed national trust bank, subject to OCC review. “The institutions building on Rain want the assets behind their programs held by a fiduciary that answers to a federal regulator,” Rain CEO and co-founder Farooq Malik said. Rain joins a growing number of crypto and payments companies seeking national trust bank charters. Payments infrastructure company Modern Treasury also announced Monday it had submitted an application seeking approval to offer digital asset custody and related fiat services. However, the push has drawn opposition from community banks. On Friday, the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC, alleging the regulator exceeded its authority by allowing non-depository trust banks to conduct extensive non-fiduciary activities. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against the OCC and Comptroller Jonathan Gould. The ICBA argued that the OCC’s National Bank Chartering final rule and an interpretive letter 1176, 2021, “perversely allow entities engaged in highly risky cryptocurrency and digital assets activities to enter the banking system under lightly regulated national charters rather than the more rigorously regulated traditional bank charter.” Related: Bastion wins conditional OCC approval for national trust bank charter ICBA said the framework gives crypto trust banks a competitive advantage by allowing them to offer services that overlap with com