Jack Dorsey’s Block Applies for OCC Charter for Builders Bank & Trust Custody

Jack Dorsey’s Block said on Sept. 8 that it applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Builders Bank & Trust, an uninsured national trust bank that would provide custody and related fiduciary services for assets including bitcoin and stablecoins.

“Block said on Sept. 8 that it applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency”

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Block said the proposed institution would operate under OCC supervision and would not accept deposits or make loans, separating it from a conventional commercial-bank model.

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The company stressed that filing an application is not an approval and that Builders Bank cannot begin operating until the required regulatory clearances are received.

Block named Lee Woolley, its digital asset strategy lead, as the proposed bank’s president and chief executive if the charter is approved, and said Woolley previously led the Treasury Department Federal Credit Union and held senior banking roles at Northern Trust and BNY Mellon.

The application remains pending before the OCC, which can ask for more information, approve the application, impose conditions, or reject the application.

Block said Builders Bank would focus on custody and other fiduciary functions for assets like Bitcoin and stablecoins, using a national charter to provide regulatory uniformity as those services expanded.

Lee Woolley, expected to serve as president and CEO, tied the application to Block’s digital-asset operations and its experience with Square Financial Services, describing the plan as support for Block’s broader vision of economic empowerment.

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In the same statement, Woolley said, "Building on Block’s experience in the digital asset space, our history with Square Financial Services, and the deep banking expertise of the team we’ve assembled, we believe Builders Bank is well positioned to support Block’s broader vision of economic empowerment," as the company sought a federal framework for certain custody activities.

The application does not authorize Builders Bank to open, because Block said it cannot begin operations until the OCC’s review process is complete and the regulator has issued its approval.

The filing also comes as the OCC has received 40 de novo charter applications since 2025, with 21 approved and two rejected, according to The Block’s account of the regulator’s stance.

The OCC’s chartering process for national banks includes financial, supervisory, and legal analyzes, and Block said Builders Bank would not commence business unless and until approval is granted.

“The OCC must review the application, and the company said Builders Bank would not commence business unless and until approval is granted.”

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Incrypted reported that the OCC conditional approval still does not automatically grant companies the right to begin banking operations, and that entities must meet the regulator’s requirements and obtain final authorization before launching.

The same source placed Block’s filing in a wider wave of crypto and fintech applicants, noting that in December 2025 the OCC conditionally approved applications from Circle, Ripple Labs, BitGo, Paxos, and Fidelity Digital Assets.

In July 2026, Incrypted said the company received final OCC approval to establish First National Digital Currency Bank, which will operate under the name Circle National Trust, and it also cited February 2026 conditional approval for Bridge, a stablecoin platform owned by Stripe.

For Block, the immediate consequence is that the concrete development is the submission itself, while the next decisive step is the OCC review of Builders Bank & Trust, N.A. before any custody operations can be launched under a federally supervised framework.