Ramp, the New York fintech valued at $60 billion in its latest funding round, has asked the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter that would let a new entity, Ramp National Trust Bank, hold digital assets for customers. The filing carries a date of October 16, 2026.
Ramp said the new bank would focus on fiduciary investment management and custody services for digital assets, and that it “will not take deposits or make commercial loans” . The company framed the move as seeking “a consistent federal regulatory framework” . The October 16 date is press-reported and the OCC has not confirmed it; no review timeline has been disclosed.
A charter that now sits inside a lawsuit
Even as the application went in, the very category of charter Ramp is seeking is under legal attack. The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) took the OCC to federal court in Washington on October 2, challenging the narrowly scoped charters the regulator has issued to crypto firms, and its chief executive Rebeca Romero Rainey argued that Congress never intended the charter to serve as “a side door into the banking system for crypto firms” .
The suit is an allegation, not a finding, and how the pending case affects the OCC’s handling of new applications like Ramp’s is not known. But it means approval of Ramp National Trust Bank could become legally contested even if the OCC says yes. Our earlier coverage of the ICBA lawsuit against the OCC’s crypto trust charters sets out the community bankers’ case in full.
Ramp joins a queue with mixed outcomes
Ramp is far from alone. Bridge, owned by Stripe, received conditional OCC sign-off in February to run a national trust bank holding digital assets and managing stablecoin. Circle received final approval in July for First National Digital Currency Bank. The regulator rejected Wise’s trust bank bid the same month, citing compliance and money laundering concerns. Revolut chose a broader route, securing conditional approval in September for a full national bank charter, though that licence would still need the sign-off of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve before it takes effect. Klaros Group counted more than 30 applicants for US bank licences during 2025, Interactive Brokers and PayPal among them.
The trust charter is a deliberately narrow beachhead: custody and fiduciary services without the deposit-taking and commercial lending that trigger full bank regulation. For Ramp, which today holds customer checking deposits at First Internet Bank of Indiana and runs its investment account through Moment Advisors with assets at Apex Clearing, the charter would bring fiduciary custody in-house. Whether the OCC, and the courts, let it through is the open variable.
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Saqib Iqbal
