OCC chief says Democrats applying sole political pressure in World Liberty charter choice
The regulator rejected claims he’s doing President Trump’s bidding during a congressional hearing that also addressed the GENIUS Act stablecoin push.
What to know:
- The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing with banking regulators that delved into stablecoin rules and the controversial bank-charter application from World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm tied to President Donald Trump and his family.
- Jonathan Gould, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, rejected assertions that he’s doing Trump’s bidding in the charter process and said that the only political pressure on this point is coming from Democrats.
- The chief of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said another stablecoin proposal is coming involving customer-identification programs.
Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould’s rebuttal had come in response to Representative Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, who asked during the Thursday hearing whether Gould is “working for the American people or working as a Trump fixer, which is it?”
“Your attempts to continue to pressure me are the only political pressure I’ve felt from anyone other than your Senate colleagues,” Gould said, referring to similar questions he’d heard from Democrats including Senator Elizabeth Warren. “That is very unfortunate and unprecedented,” he added, insisting that his agency will do its job under the statute governing charters.
Democrats continue to argue that World Liberty’s connection to foreign investors and crypto partners that have been previously associated with illicit behavior — including global exchange Binance — suggest that it’s not fit for a U.S. banking charter, and they’ve argued it’s inappropriate for a Trump appointee to be deciding whether to give such a benefit to a business partially owned by the president and his family.
