Ramp applies for a national trust bank charter with the OCC

National trust bank charters from the OCC let non-bank firms custody assets and act as fiduciaries under federal, rather than state-by-state, oversight. Anchorage Digital became the first crypto firm to win one in 2021, and Paxos and others have since followed the same route. Ramp, a $60 billion corporate card and payments company, is now seeking the same federal license rather than continuing to rely solely on banking partners for custody and fiduciary work.

If granted, the charter lets Ramp hold digital assets and manage investments directly as a fiduciary under OCC supervision, instead of routing those functions through third-party banks. The entity would not take deposits or make commercial loans, so it stays narrowly focused on custody rather than becoming a full bank. Ramp has said it will keep building products with its existing banking partners, meaning corporate clients should see the charter as additive infrastructure rather than a replacement for current services.

The filing fits a broader pattern of fintechs chasing federal trust charters to escape fragmented state money-transmitter rules, trading local licensing fights for a single national supervisor. That is efficient for the companies, but it also concentrates custody of client assets inside OCC-approved entities that look more like banks than the self-custodial model crypto was originally built around. Whether federal oversight makes digital asset custody safer or just centralizes it differently is a fair question still unanswered by precedent. (per crypto.news)

The OCC's review of Ramp's Oct. 19 application will determine whether the fintech joins Anchorage and Paxos as a federally chartered crypto custodian, and the timeline and any conditions attached will signal how the agency is treating newer applicants versus the earlier wave. Approval would let Ramp launch custody and fiduciary services under its own license; a delay or denial would leave it dependent on its current banking partners for those functions.