A banking app tied to World Liberty Financial Inc., a crypto company partly owned by President Donald Trump, will continue as normal, according to the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, who rejected a request from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren to focus special scrutiny on the president’s potential conflict of interest with the company.
The Massachusetts lawmaker, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, is in conflict with a federal banking regulator and other members of the Trump administration over his personal stake in a company that will be regulated by the federal agencies he controls. But Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said Friday he would follow the normal course of the application process for the World Liberty Trust Bank bid.
“Congress has made clear that the OCC has a duty to act on applications it receives in a timely manner,” Gould wrote to Warren in a letter. “The OCC intends to act in accordance with this obligation rather than your request.” He said he wanted charter applications to be an “apolitical, non-partisan process” in which the regulator will ensure applicants meet standards and expectations.
“Comptroller Jonathan Gould – who serves at the pleasure of President Trump – refuses to delay consideration of World Liberty Financial’s bank charter application until Trump and his family divest from the company,” Warren said in a statement Friday. “The OCC review is a sham. We have never seen financial conflicts of this magnitude and no crypto market structure legislation should pass Congress without safeguards to stop this type of corruption.”
Last month, Gould – a former executive at blockchain company Bitfury – defended the trend of crypto companies seeking charters of trust, drawing criticism from traditional bankers.
Read more: Senate Warren: WLFI-linked bank request should be suspended until Trump divests
