Custodia to appeal ruling in Fed lawsuit

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Custodia Bank will appeal the district court ruling against it in its lawsuit against the Federal Reserve.
Nedrofly - stock.adobe.com

Custodia Bank will appeal the district court decision handed down last month in its lawsuit against the Federal Reserve.

The Cheyenne-based digital asset bank submitted a notice to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday that it would challenge the decision reached by Judge Scott Skavdahl of the U.S. District Court in Wyoming on March 29.

Custodia unsuccessfully sued the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, claiming that the entities wrongfully denied it an account with the central bank.

Skavdahl ruled that, contrary to Custodia's argument, the reserve bank had discretion to deny the bank a so-called master account, which would have provided the state-chartered special purpose depository access to the federal payments system. 

He also dismissed a complaint that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors violated the Administrative Procedure Act through its involvement in the decision making process.

Custodia was one of three firms challenging the Fed's master account granting practices, along with PayServices Inc., a digital bank in Idaho that unsuccessfully sued the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and Banco San Juan Internacional, a Puerto Rican international banking entity that is suing the New York Fed.

Custodia's notice of appeal is the first step in a formal appeal, which many legal analysts have expected since Skavdahl's decision was released. 

This will be the second time the 10th Circuit has been asked to weigh in on a master account dispute, with the first coming in 2017 from Fourth Corner Credit Union, a Colorado-based firm that sought to provide banking services to the state's legal marijuana industry. In that case, the court rendered a split decision overturning the lower court's decision to dismiss Fourth Corner's lawsuit against Kansas City Fed, effectively giving the credit union another chance to re-apply and potentially relitigate. 

The Fourth Corner case has been cited by Custodia and others in lawsuits against the Fed regarding master account access, because one judge on the panel wrote in his opinion that the Fed was obligated to grant accounts to nonmember banks. But the decision was not controlling, meaning it does not set an official precedent in the circuit. 

Custodia also filed a motion with the District Court in Wyoming objecting to the Kansas City Fed's effort to recoup more than $25,000 in costs from the bank related to the lawsuit.

The reserve bank submitted an itemized bill of costs to the court, requesting that Custodia reimburse it for expenses related to deposition transcription. 

In its filing, Custodia referred to its case against the Fed as a "David versus Goliath lawsuit," arguing that if the court forces it to cover the reserve bank's costs, it would "risk chilling future legitimate lawsuits challenging the administrative actions of governmental and quasi-governmental entities."

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