OCC Gives Augustus Conditional Approval to Build AI-Native Clearing Bank in the US

Augustus Clears First OCC Hurdle for AI Clearing Bank

The New York-based company, formerly known arsenic Ivy, announced the conditional support connected May 11. Augustus Bank, N.A. volition people planetary fiscal institutions that necessitate always-on, programmable colony of large Western currencies.

The merchandise explains that the company’s thesis centers connected a circumstantial spread successful the existing model. The bequest analogous clearing strategy closes astir 115 days per year, runs connected a two-day colony cycle, and was built earlier programmable wealth existed.

Co-founder Ferdinand Dabitz, 25, volition service arsenic CEO of Augustus Bank, N.A. If the charter reaches afloat approval, Dabitz would go the youngest CEO of a federally chartered U.S. slope successful astatine slightest 140 years. He is besides a Thiel Fellow.

Greg Quarles volition service arsenic president. Quarles spent 18 years astatine the OCC arsenic a commissioned nationalist slope examiner and adjunct lawman comptroller earlier serving arsenic CEO of Green Dot Bank, United Texas Bank, and H&R Block Bank.

The broader enforcement team includes Joe Schenone arsenic CFO, who held anterior roles astatine JPMorgan Chase and MUFG and is credited with helping person some Lendingclub and Smartbiz into chartered banks. Andy Riggs, named main recognition officer, was connected the founding squad of Brex’s plus absorption business.

Kyle Steed volition service arsenic main hazard serviceman aft astir precocious holding an interim CRO relation astatine United Texas Bank. Bruce Wallace, with anterior committee and advisory acquisition astatine Brex and Revolut, joins the bank’s board.

Augustus’s European subsidiaries are already regulated and processing euro clearing. The institution reported 10x year-over-year maturation successful 2024, processing billions successful volume. Kraken, the integer plus exchange, is among its existent clients. U.S. dollar clearing would necessitate the afloat nationalist slope charter to go operational.

The company’s halfway banking strategy is said to beryllium built from scratch for machine-initiated, agent-driven workflows. Legacy cores grip short-lived, human-initiated requests. Augustus’s infrastructure is designed for durable, non-deterministic operations astatine scale.

Augustus’s merchandise explains that since 2010, less than 10 full-service nationalist slope charters person been granted successful the United States. The mean U.S. slope is much than 100 years old. The conditional support comes arsenic Congress advances the GENIUS Act, which would let federally chartered banks to prosecute straight with stablecoins.

Augustus besides points to increasing competitory unit connected Western currency infrastructure. China’s CIPS web present connects 4,800 banks. Russia-backed BRICS Pay is scheduled to motorboat successful 2026 and is designed to way cross-border payments extracurricular SWIFT and the U.S. dollar strategy entirely.

The support arrives arsenic banking commercialized groups push back against crypto firms gaining entree to national banking infrastructure. This week, the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) has asked the OCC to intermission information of Kraken’s abstracted nationalist spot charter application, filed by Kraken’s genitor company, Payward Inc.

ICBA President Rebeca Romero Rainey has argued that crypto firms pursuing stablecoin access, Federal Reserve maestro accounts, and spot charters simultaneously make “interconnected risks” to fiscal stableness without facing equivalent regulatory requirements.

The American Bankers Association’s (ABA) Rob Nichols separately urged slope CEOs connected May 10 to interaction senators straight up of the Senate Banking Committee’s scheduled ballot connected the CLARITY Act, a integer plus marketplace operation bill.

Augustus’s conditional support does not resoluteness those debates. The afloat charter remains taxable to OCC review.