Crypto · 14 August, 2026 · 3 min read
OCC Grants Conditional Approval for World Liberty Trust Company Bank Charter
OCC grants conditional preliminary approval for World Liberty Trust Company to establish a trust bank. Trump-linked World Liberty Financial receives bank charter approval amid ethics concerns.
What the bank charter enables.
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CBS News
“This creates the awkward situation of the OCC needing to police World Liberty”Read the original ↗
bitcoin.es
“Sin embargo, la noticia ha sido recibida con una reacción política inmediata”Read the original ↗
CNN and CBS foreground ethics risk; bitcoin.es softens it as immediate political reaction.
OCC approval for World Liberty
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted conditional approval to World Liberty Trust Company, a trust company affiliated with World Liberty Financial, to establish a bank charter, a step that would allow it to issue and manage its own stablecoins without relying on a middleman.
“has received conditional approval to establish a bank”
CBS News reported that the plan would let the trust company issue and manage its own stablecoins, and it said World Liberty Financial is linked to President Trump's sons and Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration's special envoy to the Middle East.C
CBS News also said World Liberty Financial is 38% owned by "an entity affiliated with Donald J. CTrump and certain of his family members," according to the company's website, while the OCC approval was described as preliminary and conditional pending requirements before final approval.
USA Today added that World Liberty Trust Company received conditional approval from the Treasury Department on Aug. 14 to become a bank, and it said the approval gives World Liberty the right to issue a type of cryptocurrency called stablecoin tied to the U.S. dollar.
Democrats call it self-dealing
Criticism from Democrats focused on conflicts of interest, with CBS News quoting Austin Campbell saying, "This creates the awkward situation of the OCC needing to police World Liberty, which has an affiliation with the president's family," and calling it "pretty unprecedented."
CBS News said Sen. CElizabeth Warren called the move a "brazen act of self-dealing" and that she and a group of Democratic senators planned to introduce a bill to prevent the president, vice president and their family members from "owning or controlling a bank."
In a separate account, Cointelegraph said the OCC approval came amid concerns about potential conflicts of interest between World Liberty and President Donald Trump’s family, and it noted that the head of the OCC, Jonathan Gould, was nominated by Trump in 2025.
Cointelegraph also reported that Warren introduced legislation to “stop this kind of unprecedented corruption,” calling the OCC’s move “the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen.”
Conditions, oversight, and what’s at stake
World Liberty and its supporters argued that the charter would place the company under ongoing federal oversight, with CBS News quoting a World Liberty spokesperson saying its trust company's national charter "will ensure robust and permanent regulatory supervision from the OCC, a federal banking regulator, that will outlast the Trump administration."C
“"will ensure robust and permanent regulatory supervision from the OCC”
USA Today reported that the charter is preliminary and requires the company to notify the Office of Comptroller of the Currency of any major business plan changes, maintain at least $20 million in capital, and hire an internal audit manager.
CNN said the bank charter would allow World Liberty to cut out the middlemen it relies on to safeguard and issue USD1, a dollar-backed stable coin that has more than $4 billion in circulation, while noting that the firm won’t be able to take deposits or make loans.
CNN also quoted Richard Painter warning that it is "quite precarious to have the president and his family invested heavily in one of our most important regulated industries" at the same time as he has the power to hire and fire regulators, framing the stakes as safety, soundness, and supervision.