The OCC’s page of public comments on the application includes letters from the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), the Bank Policy Institute (BPI), the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) and Fair Finance Watch (FFW).
Each organization said in its letter that it opposes Bridge’s application to organize Bridge National Trust Bank.
Reached by PYMNTS for comment on these letters, Stripe pointed to an Oct. 14 post on social platform X in which Bridge CEO and co-founder Zach Abrams announced that the company had submitted its application.
“The charter would allow Bridge to operate under a unified federal framework consistent with the GENIUS Act,” Abrams said in the post.
“Through this bank, we’ll provide: custody, stablecoin issuance, management of stablecoin reserves and more,” he added.
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“We’ve long believed stablecoins will be a core, regulated financial building block,” Abrams said. “This regulatory infrastructure will enable us to tokenize trillions of dollars and make this future possible.”
Payments Dive flagged the NCRC’s letter opposing Bridge’s application in a Monday (Nov. 24) report, saying that Stripe closed its acquisition of Bridge this year, that Bridge applied for the charter in October, and that a charter would give Bridge and Stripe the right to provide custody, stablecoin issuance and management of stablecoin reserves within a federal framework.
The NCRC said in its letter to the OCC that it “strongly opposes” the application. The group alleged in its letter that the OCC does not have the authority to issue national trust bank charters to crypto and stablecoin companies; that granting such a charter to Stripe would enable “regulatory arbitrage” that would harm communities and consumers; and that stablecoin issuers should not be able to use such a charter to avoid state-level laws.
The group also said in its letter that “until the GENIUS Act is effective and its implementing regulations are finalized, granting a national trust bank charter to a stablecoin issuer will create systemic risk and will fuel illicit finance and fraud that are already wreaking havoc on U.S. consumers.”
The ICBA said in its letter to the OCC that it opposes Stripe’s application and that the OCC must reject the application because “the national trust bank charter was not designed to enable trust banks to mimic the services of full-service banks.”
The BPI said in its letter that it opposes the application in part because approval would “permit the national trust bank charter to be used in a new and untested manner that could significantly increase risks to the U.S. financial system.”
PYMNTS reported Oct. 23 that stablecoin issuers are applying for bank or trust charters and seeking direct access to the Federal Reserve’s core payment system.
