Fintechs asking for, and receiving, bank charters in 2026

2026 is shaping up to be the year of fintechs becoming banks.

So far this year nearly 20 neobanks, digital asset companies, lenders and payments providers have applied for or conditionally received bank charters from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in just the first quarter. Comptroller Jonathan Gould has publicly expressed that his agency is aiming to turn around charter applications within 120 days of submission, so far that has been true for a majority of the charters requested over the last six months.

A Q1 2026 fintech report from Pitchbook notes that fintechs and crypto firms have been applying for charters within the last year due to a "now-or-never moment" of regulatory receptivity under the current administration. Trust charters, in particular, have received a boost from the stablecoin bill known as the GENIUS Act that was passed into law last summer.

American Banker is tracking these charters as they happen, and will update this list as more applications and approvals are announced.

Adobe Stock

Mercury Bank

Charter type: De novo
Status: Conditionally approved
Date: April 2026

Details: Business banking fintech Mercury Technologies announced that it received conditional approval from the OCC to establish Mercury Bank on Monday, April 27. The de novo charter will allow Mercury to incorporate Zelle into its user accounts, expand its lending products for both businesses and individuals and build its own payments infrastructure. The bank's main office will be in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mercury originally applied for a charter in December 2025.

Agora National Trust Bank

Charter type: Trust bank
Status: Applied
Date: April 2026

Details: Stablecoin fintech Agora Finance announced that it applied for a national trust bank charter with the OCC on Friday, April 24. According to the filing, Agora Bank will primarily provide services relating to digital asset custody, investment advisory and stablecoin issuance. The main office of Agora Bank will be located in New York, New York.

Mission Lane Bank

Charter type: CEBA credit card bank
Status: Applied
Date: April 2026

Details: Credit card startup Mission Lane applied for a limited-purpose credit card bank charter under the Competitive Equality in Banking Act, or CEBA. Credit card banks, under the CEBA, may engage only in credit card activities and very limited deposit activities. The charter would allow Mission Lane to originate and hold loans in-house rather than relying on its partner banks, Transportation Alliance Bank and WebBank. CEBA credit card banks also benefit from exemption from the Bank Holding Company Act and federal preemption of state licensing. Mission Lane's application is the first limited-purpose credit card bank application to the OCC in approximately two decades.

Read more about Mission Lane's charter application here.

OpenReserve Bank

Charter type: De novo bank
Status: Applied
Date: April 2026

Details: The group behind a new de novo national bank application wants to offer traditional banking with blockchain infrastructure. An OCC filing for the newly established OpenReserve references stablecoin risk management, tokenized deposits and on-chain settlement operations. OpenReserve Bank also seeks to form a wholly owned subsidiary called ReserveUSD for GENIUS Act-related stablecoin services. The bank, if approved, will be based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg

Coinbase

Charter type: National trust bank
Status: Conditionally approved
Date: April 2026

Details: Coinbase, the largest digital currency exchange in the U.S., received conditional approval for its trust charter application from the OCC on Thursday, April 2. Coinbase is not actively seeking to become a traditional bank, but will be using the charter to expand institutional digital asset custody. The application was contested by bank trade groups when it was filed last fall.

Read more about Coinbase's charter approval here.

Lorum National Trust Bank

Charter type: National trust bank
Status: Applied
Date: March 2026

Details: Lorum, a clearing and cash management fintech for financial institutions, submitted an application to the OCC to establish a U.S.-based trust bank under the name Lorum National Trust Bank, or LNTB. Lorum is the new name for the Dubai-based payments fintech Fuse, which rebranded in late 2025. According to the filing, LNTB would be headquartered in New York City and does not plan to use its charter to engage in lending services. Should the charter be approved, Lorum plans to launch fixed-income products and expand fiduciary custody services.

Bastion Platforms National Trust Company

Charter type: Trust bank conversion (state to national)
Status: Applied
Date: March 2026

Details: Stablecoin infrastructure technology provider Bastion Platforms is applying to convert its New York State trust bank charter to a national trust charter. The California-based fintech submitted its national trust bank application to the OCC, and the agency marked the application as a conversion. Bastion originally secured a limited purpose trust company charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services in February 2025 upon acquiring Dibbs Trust Company. The firm secured the state-level charter in order to launch a white-label stablecoin issuance platform.

Read more about Bastion Platforms' charter conversion application here.

EDX Trust

Charter type: Trust bank
Status: Applied
Date: March 2026

Details: EDX Holding filed an application with the OCC to establish a trust bank subsidiary in late March. The holding company behind institutional crypto exchange EDX Markets is pursuing a trust charter to provide custody and asset management services for EDX Market users. EDX Trust would also provide asset management services to customers upon request, according to the filing. The charter would also allow EDX to expand nationally and to institutional investors.

Upstart Bank

Charter type: De novo bank
Status: Applied
Date: March 2026

Details: AI-powered online lender Upstart announced in late March that it applied for a national de novo bank charter to establish Upstart Bank. The banking subsidiary will be based in Delaware and will not have any branches, but it will operate as a digital bank in all 50 states. Upstart develops and maintains AI models that it uses to analyze small-dollar relief loans, personal loans, auto loans and home equity lines of credit. Annie Delgado, Upstart's current chief risk officer will become CEO of Upstart Bank upon the charter's approval.

Read more about Upstart's charter application here. 

VALT Bank

Charter type: De novo bank
Status: Conditionally approved
Date: March 2026

Details: The OCC granted VALT Investor Group conditional approval for a de novo bank charter to be headquartered in Eagle, Idaho. The newly approved VALT Bank will be a digital business-oriented bank. Its backers say it will offer business lending and "a broad range of traditional business banking products and services, including credit and deposit products, as well as treasury and cash management services designed for digitally oriented" small and medium-size businesses. The VALT Bank application was originally filed in November and received its conditional approval exactly 120 days later.

Read more about VALT Bank's conditional approval here.

Photographer: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Revolut Bank

Charter type: De novo bank
Status: Applied
Date: March 2026

Details: U.K.-based challenger bank Revolut submitted an application to the OCC for a U.S. national bank charter in early March. Revolut, which received its full U.K. bank charter later that month, offers digital and mobile banking services. The company's charter application is the next step in its expansion into the U.S. toward its goal of being a global banking platform.

Read more about Revolut's U.S. charter application here.

Pete Kiehart/Bloomberg

Zerohash National Trust Bank

Charter type: Trust bank
Status: Applied
Date: March 2026

Details: Digital asset platform Zerohash applied for a national trust bank charter from the OCC in early March. A trust charter will permit Zerohash to expand its services, including activities that fall under the GENIUS Act, under a formal federal framework, according to a company statement. In the past half-year, Zerohash announced partnerships with One Pay and Morgan Stanley to provide digital asset services.

Read more about Zerohash's charter application here.

Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg

Morgan Stanley Digital Trust National Association

Charter type: National trust bank
Status: Applied
Date: February 2026

Details: Morgan Stanley applied to create a national trust bank subsidiary focused on crypto in late February. The Morgan Stanley Digital Trust National Association would be a wholly owned subsidiary of Morgan Stanley and would be headquartered in Purchase, New York. The trust would be in support of an initiative announced in September, where Morgan Stanley said it would partner with crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash to let its E-Trade brokerage clients trade popular cryptocurrencies.

Read more about Morgan Stanley's trust charter application here.

Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg

PAYO Digital Bank

Charter type: National trust bank
Status: Applied
Date: February 2026

Details: Global payments company Payoneer applied for a national trust bank charter, seeking to issue its own stablecoin. If approved, the new entity named in the filing as PAYO Digital Bank will allow the company to issue a U.S. dollar-pegged cryptocurrency called PAYO-USD, manage the reserves backing the token and provide digital asset custody services. Payoneer intends to integrate its proposed trust bank exclusively into its existing cross-border payments ecosystem, offering on-ramp and off-ramp settlement services directly to its nearly 2 million small- and medium-size business customers.

Read more about Payoneer's charter application here.

Paul Yeung/Bloomberg

Crypto.com National Trust Bank

Charter type: National trust bank
Status: Conditionally approved
Date: February 2026

Details: Foris DAX, the parent company for cryptocurrency exchange platform Crypto.com, received conditional approval from the OCC to establish a trust subsidiary. According to the OCC approval filing, the newly chartered Foris DAX National Trust Bank plans to do business as Crypto.com National Trust Bank. The company originally filed its application with the OCC in October 2025.

Read more about Crypto.com's conditional approval here.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Bridge National Trust Bank

Charter type: National trust bank
Status: Conditionally approved
Date: February 2026

Details: Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure provider owned by payments company Stripe, received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter in mid-February. Once fully approved, according to the company, the charter will enable Bridge to directly operate stablecoin products and services under federal oversight. International business payments fintech Payoneer announced its plans on the same day to launch stablecoin offerings powered by Bridge. Bridge initially applied for its national trust charter in October of last year.

Read more about Bridge's conditional approval here.

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Erebor Bank

Charter type: De novo bank
Status: Granted
Date: February 2026

Details: Erebor Bank, a digital bank founded by prominent tech figures such as Peter Thiel and Palmer Luckey, became the first new bank to be granted a de novo charter in four years and the first charter granted under Comptroller Gould's tenure. The group behind Erebor Bank initially filed for a de novo charter to establish the bank in July 2025, and the OCC conditionally approved the application in October. The bank also received approval for FDIC insurance in December. Erebor Bank's founders are seeking to provide crypto-related products to tech, artificial intelligence, defense and manufacturing companies in a similar business model to the now-defunct Silicon Valley Bank.

Read more about Erebor Bank's conditional approval here and charter application here.

Nubank

Nubank

Charter type: De novo bank
Status: Conditionally approved
Date: January 2026

Details: The Brazilian neobank Nubank received conditional approval from the OCC to enter the U.S. digital banking market with a de novo charter in January of this year. The conditional approval is the latest step in the São Paulo-based fintech's international expansion, with the U.S. becoming the fourth country in which it will operate. The charter will, pending full approval, allow Nubank to launch deposit accounts, credit cards, lending and digital asset custody for U.S. consumers.

Read more about Nubank's conditional approval here.

Bunq

Bunq US Bank

Charter type: De novo
Status: Applied
Date: January 2026

Details: The Amsterdam-based neobank Bunq reapplied for a U.S. banking charter two years after withdrawing its previous attempt, marking the first de novo bank charter application to the OCC in 2026. Bunq, a subscription-based service that allows users to manage multiple international accounts and currencies in one application, is aiming to reach European "digital nomads" residing in the United States. Obtaining a bank charter would allow the neobank to offer savings deposits to users living or working in the U.S. alongside its other products and services.

Read more about Bunq's charter application here.

Bloomberg

World Liberty Trust Company

Charter type: National trust bank
Status: Applied
Date: January 2026

Details: World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded by President Donald Trump, is seeking a national trust charter that would allow it to expand its USD1 stablecoin operations. The trust subsidiary, named World Liberty Trust Company, filed a de novo application with the OCC in early January as the first trust bank charter application in 2026. If granted, the charter will allow World Liberty Trust to serve institutional customers such as crypto exchanges. Comptroller Gould later said that the OCC will not delay reviewing the World Liberty Financial bank charter request, even as lawmakers expressed conflict of interest concerns surrounding the application.

Read more about the charter application here and the responses here.

2025 fintech charters

2026's influx of fintech charter applications and approvals is a continuation of the momentum built in the first year of the Trump administration, as newly appointed federal bank regulators such as Comptroller Gould expressed interest in encouraging innovation for the U.S. finance sector and approved early applicants. After the passing of the GENIUS Act for stablecoin regulation in July 2025, digital asset firms began filing en masse for trust charter applications to issue stablecoins and manage digital asset custody under the new regulatory guidelines.

Below is a list of fintechs and digital asset firms that applied for and/or received charters from the OCC in 2025. As 2025 applications are approved in 2026, they will be moved from this list to the 2026 tracker with the updated approval details.

1. Augustus National Bank (Applied Dec. 2025)
2. Circle Group's First National Digital Currency Bank (Approved Dec. 2025)
3. Ripple National Trust Bank (Approved Dec. 2025)
4. BitGo Bank & Trust (Approved Dec. 2025)
5. Fidelity Digital Assets (Approved Dec. 2025)
6. Paxos Trust Company (Approved Dec. 2025)
7. PayPal Utah ILC application (Applied Dec. 2025)
8. SmartBiz Bank (Acquisition March 2025)