Trump-backed World Liberty wins conditional bank charter from federal regulator

World Liberty applied for the charter in January of this year, spurring opposition from Democratic lawmakers concerned by the fact that the broader World Liberty entities are owned in part by President Donald Trump, who named the regulators overseeing agencies including the OCC.

In May, Senator Elizabeth Warren challenged Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, accusing him of approving unqualified crypto banks for trust charters in a wave of companies seeking abilities to issue U.S. stablecoins and access the banking system without intermediaries. She said such institutions "want to evade the fundamental safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank."

After Warren had specifically asked that the OCC put a stop to the application process for Trump-tied World Liberty, Gould had told her that the agency would act without considering politics and proceed with the application on its normal timeline.

World Liberty and USD1 have specifically been under scrutiny after an Abu Dhabi investment firm bought a stake in World Liberty Financial early last year.

These issues were raised in public comments, according to Friday’s letter from the OCC, which went on to say that “career OCC staff reviewed the application for consistency” with the legal and regulatory requirements.