OCC conditionally approves OpenReserve’s full-service national-bank plan

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted preliminary conditional approval for OpenReserve Bank to organize as a full-service insured national bank, creating a potential route for tokenized deposits and digital-asset services to operate alongside conventional deposits and lending.

The OCC issued its decision on Sept. 2. OpenReserve announced the approval on Sept. 3, describing a proposed institution built around onchain settlement. The distinction between approval to organize and approval to open is central: OpenReserve cannot conduct banking business until it completes the regulator’s preopening requirements, passes an examination and receives final OCC authorization.

The decision matters because the proposed institution is pursuing a full-service national-bank charter rather than limiting its plan to custody or other trust activities. If the remaining approvals are obtained, the structure could place insured deposits, credit, payments and certain crypto services inside one federally supervised bank. None of those products is currently available through the proposed bank.

Approval covers a broad banking plan

OpenReserve applied on April 13 to establish a bank headquartered in Salt Lake City without branches. According to the OCC, its business plan includes deposit and lending products, tokenized capabilities across deposit products, payments and treasury services, digital-asset services, foreign correspondent banking and banking-as-a-service infrastructure.

The bank also proposes nonfiduciary digital-asset custody, including wallet hosting and cryptocurrency custody. It expects to deduct some customer fees directly from digital-asset transactions, converting those assets into fiat currency within one business day unless it holds them for another permissible purpose, such as paying blockchain transaction fees.

Customers could use digital assets, including stablecoins, for remittances under the proposed plan. These descriptions identify activities reviewed as part of the charter application; they are not evidence that the services have launched, attracted customers or completed operational testing.

OpenReserve separately plans a wholly owned subsidiary for issuing, custodying, converting and transferring dollar-denominated reserve-backed stablecoins. The OCC decision says an application for that subsidiary has not been filed. Stablecoin issuance therefore was not independently approved through the Sept. 2 decision.

Capital and security conditions remain

OpenReserve must raise at least $210 million in paid-in capital after organizational and preopening expenses. The approval expires if the capital is not raised within 12 months or the bank does not open within 18 months of the preliminary decision, except in limited circumstances accepted by the OCC.

If it opens, the bank must maintain a Tier 1 leverage ratio of at least 12% during its first three years. Material departures from its business plan would require notice and a written OCC determination of no objection during the organizational period and those first three operating years.

The preopening requirements also include a detailed information-systems architecture and risk-management plan, an independent security review of the electronic-banking platform, compliance policies addressing anti-money-laundering and sanctions obligations, and confirmation that other necessary regulatory approvals have been obtained.

The OCC based its decision on the expectation that OpenReserve will secure Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation deposit insurance and apply for Federal Reserve Bank stock. The company’s website acknowledges that FDIC and other approvals remain outstanding.

A charter is not a technology endorsement

OpenReserve says its unified ledger is intended to support continuous settlement and financing. That is a company description of a system still being built, not an independently verified performance result. The OCC expressly states that preliminary approval is not an endorsement of the proposed technology, products or business model and can be modified, suspended or rescinded if material circumstances change.

Any stablecoin activity must also conform to the GENIUS Act, implementing regulations and other applicable requirements. The decision does not disclose a launch date, final stablecoin design, reserve composition, customers, transaction volumes or pricing.

The regulatory event date is Sept. 2; OpenReserve’s public announcement followed on Sept. 3. Neither retrieved page supplied an exact release time. Coinburn’s publication window is the Sept. 4 U.S. close in America/New_York. No asset-price or percentage-performance claim is included.