Warren Asks OCC To Revoke United Texas Bank Charter

Banking Dive reported that Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked federal regulators to undo United Texas Bank's national-charter conversion because approval came while the lender was still under a formal enforcement order.

The challenge targets the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's approval and the Federal Reserve's non-objection.

Warren directed the request to OCC chief Jonathan Gould and Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, placing the charter decision inside a broader supervision fight over anti-money-laundering controls, foreign correspondent banking and virtual-currency customers.

United Texas Converted Its Charter In June

The OCC approved United Texas Bank's conversion from state regulation to national oversight in May.

The Federal Reserve and the Texas Department of Banking also signalled non-objection, and the conversion was completed in June.

United Texas was operating under a 2024 consent order from the Dallas Fed and the Texas state banking regulator.

That order identified significant deficiencies involving foreign correspondent banking, virtual-currency customers, risk management and anti-money-laundering compliance.

The regulator approvals did not end the earlier enforcement matter.

The OCC issued a separate consent order in June after the national-charter approval, leaving the earlier supervision sequence at the center of Warren's challenge.

The charter conversion therefore has two separate records: the agencies' approval path for moving United Texas into national supervision, and the continuing enforcement record that required the bank to accept fresh OCC conditions.

Warren Cited Dodd-Frank Conversion Limits

Warren's Wednesday letter frames the approval as incompatible with the Dodd-Frank Act.

Section 612 is the legal basis for challenging OCC approval of a state bank's conversion to a national bank during periods covered by certain formal enforcement orders tied to significant supervisory concerns.

The OCC made the charter move dependent on United Texas accepting a fresh enforcement order.

Fed Governor Michael Barr dissented from the Fed's non-objection in May, and his statement quoted the same Dodd-Frank passage.

Barr's dissent also acknowledged that statutory exceptions can apply for some banks, but his statement rejected the idea that this charter-conversion request had made a compelling case.

That distinction matters for the record Warren is asking the agencies to defend.

Warren's letter warns that granting the charter could give other banks an incentive to seek a different regulator rather than fix outstanding problems.

The same request also connects the decision to recent national trust charter approvals for cryptocurrency companies and asks the OCC to explain its legal basis.

AML And Crypto Concerns Remain Central

Barr's statement frames the public enforcement action as evidence of serious problems in United Texas Bank's controls for anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing obligations.

Warren's request also points to the bank's virtual-currency customer exposure and treats crypto technologies as a harder setting for money-laundering enforcement.

The regulators' 2024 order required United Texas to address corporate-governance and senior-management oversight deficiencies.

Warren's letter notes that the OCC's June follow-up consent order omitted that corporate-governance portion, leaving a gap between the state and federal enforcement records.

The Bank Secrecy Act and AML references keep the dispute focused on supervisory fitness rather than only charter form.

For United Texas, the question is whether a national-charter approval can proceed while the underlying controls record remains under enforcement scrutiny.

Regulators Face A Response Request

Warren wrote in the letter that Gould and Bowman should provide the legal and supervisory basis for approving the conversion by Aug. 20.

The request also seeks any evidence of progress United Texas had shown toward resolving the enforcement action.

The next regulatory record is the agencies' response, remediation material from the bank, or an OCC decision on the revocation request.

Until one of those appears, the charter approval remains tied to the same AML, virtual-currency and governance concerns that shaped the earlier orders.