Federal Court/SDNY / NDCA, May 12 –The US
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has taken another
step to reduce and delay public notice of the national bank
applications it rubberstamps, now in secret.
As of the morning of May 12, the OCC's website
provides notice of no applications received from banks since
May 1. Since its comment periods are 30 days at most, to
cast the first 12 (and counting) of 30 days in darkness
further reduces the public's ability to review and comment.
But that seems to be the OCC's goal.
Fair Finance Watch previous inquired into why the
new OCC eliminated its long-standing Weekly Bulletin of
applications received; the response citing a five day delay
between applications being received and notice being
provided by the OCC. Now the OCC has extended the black-out
period to 12 days and counting. Inner City Press aims to
have more on this.
This as the OCC's rubberstamping of crypto firms'
application for bank charters has hit a new low.
Back in October 2025 Fair Finance Watch commented on, and
Inner City Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request
regarding, Crypto.com's application to the OCC to set up
Foris Dax bank. By February 2026, without providing
the FOIA documents, the OCC rubberstamped the application.
Now in May, Crypto.com is seeking to seal basic
information about its internal BSA/AML compliance systems
and transaction-monitoring processes. The information is
directly relevant to the public interest questions raised in
the regulatory proceedings — specifically, whether
Crypto.com's compliance infrastructure adequately protects
consumers and meets regulatory standards. So Inner
City Press has filed to unseal - watch this site.
At the OCC, the exclusion of the public began from the
first day. FFW wrote in:
This first comment questions why the OCC has not put
Crypto.com's application for a bank on the OCC's Digital
Asset Licensing Applications page. Given the OCC openly
trying to provide less public notice, shorter or no review
times, this omission must be
corrected. For now, consider one of
the many issues at Crypto.com meriting the public hearings
hereby requested: ..
."One of Urban's successful exploits, which he accomplished
with the help of another hacker who went by the name Jack,
resulted in the pair gaining access to a Crypto.com
employee's account... A Crypto.com spokesperson [claimed]
that the breach affected the personal information of "a very
small number of individuals" and that no customer funds were
accessed. [Crypto publication] The Block could not
immediately reach Crypto.com for comment. The attack
took place some time before March of 2023, when Urban was
targeted in an FBI raid that seized $4 million worth of
Urban's cryptocurrency, along with hundreds of thousands of
dollars in cash and jewelry. Urban was arrested nine months
later in January 2024, and charged with involvement in the
hacks of 13 companies. Urban later pleaded guilty, and was
sentenced to 10 years in
prison."
Crypto.com, now applying for a bank charter, must disclose
all such breaches that harm crypto consumers, and explain
them, in the requested public hearings.
The proposal presumably claims that it would be exempt from
the Community Reinvestment Act - FFW disagrees - and thus
does not make any of the required showing of meeting
convenience and needs of community, or being of any public
benefit.
On February 23, a snow day in many places, Crypto.com announced it had procured OCC approval. And the application disappeared from the OCC's website, without comment or explanation. Only a few more for the OCC to rubberstamp - unless they are stopped. Watch this site.
