The regulators approve: the OCC grants preliminary conditional approval for the family-linked trust bank

World Liberty Financial applied in January 2026 for a national trust bank charter, the decision on which belonged to the president's own appointee as Comptroller. On August 14, 2026 the OCC granted preliminary conditional approval, with final approval to open still subject to preopening requirements. The decision records that the bank plans to issue USD1, a stablecoin backed by fiat currency, to institutional clients nationwide, assuming that role from BitGo, the current exclusive issuer and custodian. USD1 had reached more than $4 billion in circulation according to the company.

The family's interest runs through several entities, and the decision names them. The OCC records that three holders, including DT Marks SC LLC, committed in July 2026 that their indirect investments in the bank were passive, and that World Liberty Financial and the bank share indirect common owners. DT Marks is World Liberty's majority stakeholder, 70 percent owned by the Donald Trump Revocable Trust and 30 percent by members of the family, with Eric Trump as its president. World Liberty's website puts the affiliated entity's stake in the company itself at 38 percent, a figure two separate outlets take from the company. A co-founder of World Liberty is Zachary Witkoff, son of the president's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

The countervailing facts are on the face of the decision. The OCC states that approvals of this kind are made under authority delegated to career staff, that career staff reviewed the application under established policies, and that the Comptroller and staff acted consistently with their statutory and ethical obligations. The approval is preliminary and conditional rather than final. The decision also records that four commenters raised conflict-of-interest concerns involving the president, his family, the Witkoffs and Emirati investors, and that the OCC treated token and emoluments questions as outside its review because World Liberty Financial, Inc. is not a party to the application. No finding of impropriety has been made by anyone. A senator who had warned the Comptroller in February that approval would make the agency an accomplice called the decision the most brazen act of self-dealing the financial system has seen. The application itself is recorded at CRY-19.

Documented; the OCC decision is a published primary document, and the ownership figures come from the company through three outlets

Lawful on the record as it stands. Approval is preliminary and conditional, final approval to open is outstanding, and no court, inspector general or congressional body has found the review improper. The OCC states that career staff decided the application under delegated authority

USD1 stablecoin circulation reported by the company at more than $4 billion. The charter lets the bank issue and redeem USD1 directly rather than through BitGo. No dollar figure for the family’s income from the venture is stated here: see Left out

Application filed 2026-01-05 (recorded at CRY-19); OCC preliminary conditional approval 2026-08-14; final approval outstanding