Overview
- Interpretive Letter 1188 permits national banks to buy a crypto asset from one counterparty and promptly resell it to a customer, treating the function as the legal and economic equivalent of a broker acting as agent.
- The OCC says banks neutralize market risk through offsetting trades, leaving primarily credit and settlement risk that will be supervised under existing compliance and risk-management expectations.
- Banks engaging in riskless-principal crypto activity must operate safely and soundly and in compliance with applicable law, with the OCC examining these activities as part of routine supervision.
- The action aligns with a broader reset in which the OCC and FDIC are removing “reputation risk” from supervisory practice and increasing transparency around prior crypto-related decisions.
- Comptroller Jonathan Gould has defended equal treatment for crypto firms seeking national trust charters, noting 14 applications this year and conditional approval for Erebor, even as groups like the ICBA and Bank Policy Institute urge the OCC to reject such bids.