Ramp applies to the OCC for a national trust bank and digital asset custody

Ramp wants a federal charter for the parts of its business that touch assets directly. The corporate payments and fintech company said Monday it applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Oct. 16 to establish Ramp National Trust Bank, an entity that would offer fiduciary investment management and custody of digital assets under one federal framework.

"If approved, the charter would allow the trust bank to offer fiduciary investment management and custody of digital assets," Ramp said on X. "The proposed trust bank would bring these services under a consistent federal regulatory framework, helping us build great products alongside our banking partners to further our mission to save businesses time and money. It will not take deposits or make commercial loans." Crypto Briefing and crypto.news reported the filing and the announcement.

What the charter would and would not do

National trust banks are a specific creature of U.S. banking law. They cannot take customer deposits in the ordinary sense and cannot issue commercial loans. Their permitted activities revolve around fiduciary work, holding and managing assets on behalf of clients under a legal duty, and the custody functions that go with it. For a crypto-related applicant, that means federal supervision of key management and asset safekeeping rather than a patchwork of state licenses.

Ramp's existing product stack runs through partners, not its own bank charter. Business checking deposits sit at First Internet Bank of Indiana, an FDIC member. Investment accounts are offered by Ramp Advisory LLC with portfolios from Moment Advisors and brokerage execution and custody at Apex Clearing. Customer balances across those checking and investment products exceed $5 billion as of Oct. 20, though the company notes that figure is assets under management and administration, not regulatory AUM, and that none of it is already sitting in digital asset custody.

The Oct. 19 announcement did not change any of those arrangements. It also did not say which digital assets a future Ramp trust bank would support, whether custody would be limited to existing business customers, or when the entity could open.

Why now, and the queue behind it

Ramp reached a $60 billion valuation in an October company update, serving 85,000 businesses with annualized revenue above $2 billion and positive cash flow. Founders Eric Glyman and Karim Atiyeh said customers save more than $1 billion each month through the platform. A trust bank charter would let that balance-sheet-adjacent business hold client assets under federal rules instead of through a chain of intermediaries.

Ramp is not alone in line. The OCC's public digital asset licensing register lists applications from Rain National Trust Bank, Payward National Trust Company, and Zerohash National Trust Bank, with Rain filing on Oct. 5 seeking custody, stablecoin reserve management, and related activities. Ramp did not appear on the reviewed page as of Oct. 20, which the regulator says is updated as new applications are received. The filings also arrive amid a legal challenge to the OCC's authority to charter national trust banks in the first place, a fight that will shape whether any of these applications convert into operating banks.

For Ramp's business customers, the practical impact would show up later and quietly. Custody under a federal trust charter means fewer counterparties between a company and its assets, and a supervisory relationship that regulators can examine. It does not mean products ship the day a charter is granted. The company has not published a launch plan, a supported-asset list, or a client onboarding model for the proposed bank.

The OCC's review timeline for de novo charters is measured in months, not weeks, and approval is never assumed. Until then, Ramp National Trust Bank is a name on a filing, and the custody business it would formalize still runs through partners in New York.