Trump Order Directs Fed to Study Master Account Access for Non-Bank Digital Asset Firms

President Trump has signed an executive order requiring the Federal Reserve to evaluate whether it holds the legal authority to grant direct Reserve Bank payment account access to non-bank financial companies and uninsured depository institutions, including those operating in digital assets. The Fed has 120 days to produce a report assessing its statutory remit, options for broadening access, and any legal obstacles. The order also challenges whether individual Reserve Banks may unilaterally restrict entry, a pointed reference to the Custodia litigation.

The directive extends well beyond the Fed’s current narrow-access initiative, which confines payment accounts to chartered institutions, bars interest on balances, caps deposits, and excludes daylight overdraft or discount window privileges. If the Fed concludes it can widen eligibility and acts on that conclusion, the change would reconnect parts of the digital asset sector directly to the settlement backbone, bypassing correspondent banking and reducing structural counterparty exposure for firms now reliant on commercial bank intermediaries.

The 120-day timeline makes the report due in mid-September. Whether the Fed interprets its statutory mandate as permissive or constrained will determine whether tokenisation platforms, stablecoin issuers, and custodians gain a structural funding advantage or remain dependent on partnership chains that introduce cost and operational friction.