Modern Treasury Seeks OCC Charter to Launch National Trust Bank for Stablecoins

Modern Treasury has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national trust bank, marking a significant move into the regulated financial sphere. For fintech professionals, this represents a major infrastructure player seeking to bridge the gap between traditional fiat movement and digital asset custody under federal supervision.

What was announced

Modern Treasury has formally submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish the Modern Treasury National Trust Bank. If the application is successful, the entity will operate as a federally regulated, limited-purpose national trust bank under direct OCC supervision. This strategic move is designed to provide customers with a unified custody solution, bridging the gap between the company’s existing payment and settlement capabilities and new digital asset services. The proposed bank is intended to offer an integrated environment for the custody and movement of both stablecoins and fiat currency.

Crucially, the scope of the bank is strictly defined; it will not engage in traditional lending activities nor will it issue its own stablecoins. Instead, it will focus on providing the infrastructure required for secure asset holding and transfer. Until the OCC grants final authorization and the necessary regulatory approvals are secured, the bank will not commence operations. During this period, Modern Treasury’s core software and payment service provider (PSP) business will remain unchanged, continuing to serve its existing bank and stablecoin partners through its current infrastructure. The proposed bank would operate as a separate, limited-purpose banking entity, providing only the specific services authorized by the OCC, ensuring a clear distinction between its software-led services and its regulated banking operations.

"We believe stablecoins are foundational economic infrastructure for the future. We have now fully integrated stablecoins to our payments platform. Pursuing this charter will add direct federally supervised digital asset custody and related services to the infrastructure our customers already use."

Matt Marcus, Co-Founder and CEO of Modern Treasury.

The companies involved

Modern Treasury is a prominent provider of infrastructure for global money movement, positioning itself as a critical layer between enterprises and the banking system. The company provides a single API that facilitates both fiat and stablecoin transactions, supported by developer tools for compliance, ledgering, and reporting. To date, the platform has powered more than $600 billion in payments for hundreds of organizations, ranging from emerging fintechs to large-scale enterprises. The company’s growth has been fueled by significant backing from high-profile venture capital firms, including Benchmark, Altimeter, and Salesforce Ventures.

By offering a unified platform for money movement, Modern Treasury has established itself as a key player in the modernization of treasury management. The platform is designed to help businesses launch and scale payment experiences in days, rather than months, by automating the complex workflows associated with money movement. The pursuit of a national trust bank charter represents an evolution from a pure software and service provider to a regulated financial institution, allowing it to offer deeper integration for digital assets while maintaining its role as a technology partner for traditional financial institutions.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has followed Modern Treasury’s expansion into digital assets closely, recently reporting when Modern Treasury Unveils Non-Custodial Stablecoin Wallets to Bridge Fiat and Crypto Rails. This move into crypto followed broader efforts to unify traditional payment methods, such as when Modern Treasury Integrates Physical and Digital Checks into Unified Payments API. The company’s infrastructure has also been central to sector-specific scaling; for instance, GrowIt Partners with Modern Treasury to Automate Real Estate Capital Raise Payments, and Depa Finance Partners with Modern Treasury to Scale Stablecoin-Native Cross-Border Payments. These milestones highlight a consistent trajectory toward merging legacy financial systems with blockchain-based value transfer. With 16 stories covering the company's growth, FF News has documented its transition from a payments orchestrator to a comprehensive money movement platform.

What this means

This application signals a shift in the fintech power dynamic, where infrastructure providers are no longer content being mere software layers atop traditional banks. By seeking a national trust charter, Modern Treasury is challenging the "fintech-as-a-wrapper" model, aiming for the regulatory autonomy required to handle digital assets without the friction of third-party custodial dependencies. This moves the needle by forcing a conversation about federal oversight in the stablecoin era. It puts pressure on traditional custodial banks that have been slow to adopt digital asset frameworks. However, the OCC’s high bar for such charters remains a significant hurdle, raising questions about how many fintechs can actually transition from pure-play software to regulated banking entities.