OCC May Give Senators Warren and Scott Access to Trump Bank Application

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said Thursday (Feb. 26) that he will consider sharing the unredacted bank charter application of World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance company co-founded by members of the Trump family, with the chairman and the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Gould said this during an exchange with Warren at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on oversight of banking regulators. Warren posted a transcript and video of the exchange in a press release on the committee’s website.

During the exchange, Warren asked if World Liberty Financial had disclosed all principal shareholders, if those shareholders had filed a biographical and financial report with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and whether Gould would show Warren and Scott an unredacted application so they can see this for themselves.

Warren added later in the exchange that she would like to see the application “in camera, it is non-public” so that she can ascertain that required disclosures have been made.

“Senator, I would be happy to entertain your request and discuss with my team and make sure we are doing and affording you the same privileges that we have afforded past administrations in similar situations,” Gould said.

Warren responded: “I don’t know that anyone has had to ask that before because I don’t think any president has ever had a pending bank application before.”

A subsidiary of World Liberty Financial submitted an application to the OCC in January, seeking to establish a national trust bank purpose-built for stablecoins.

The company said in a press release that the charter will position the national trust bank, World Liberty Trust Company, National Association (WLTC), to issue and custody World Liberty Financial’s dollar-backed stablecoin, USD1. WLTC plans to serve institutional customers, including cryptocurrency exchanges, market makers and investment firms.

A spokesman for World Liberty Financial, David Wachsman, told Reuters Thursday that the company has complied with all of the application process’ requirements, including the required disclosures.

“Democrats are playing politics and, with baseless lies, smearing a private American company undergoing a rigorous regulatory process,” Wachsman said, per the report.