Finance04 September, 20262 min read
OpenReserve Gets OCC Preliminary Conditional Approval To Organize Full-Service National Bank In Salt Lake City
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OCC grants OpenReserve preliminary conditional approval to organize a full-service insured national bank in Utah. OpenReserve must raise at least $210 million and obtain deposit insurance before final approval.
7 outlets told this the same way.
OCC backs OpenReserve
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted OpenReserve preliminary conditional approval to organize a full-service insured national bank in Salt Lake City, Utah, but the approval does not allow OpenReserve Bank to begin banking operations. OpenReserve must raise at least $210 million in initial paid-in capital after organizational and preopening expenses and maintain a tier-one leverage ratio of no less than 12% during its first three years. The OCC also required OpenReserve to obtain deposit insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and apply for Federal Reserve Bank stock before receiving final authorization.
OpenReserve’s conditional approval expires unless capital arrives within twelve months and banking begins within eighteen months, and the company must satisfy OCC preopening conditions including operational readiness, governance, compliance and technology. OpenReserve said it is building around a programmable core ledger and onchain settlement infrastructure, and its planned services include deposits, lending, payments, treasury services, tokenized deposits, digital asset custody and foreign correspondent banking.
Stablecoin subsidiary and deadlines
OpenReserve plans to establish a wholly owned subsidiary for issuing, holding, converting and processing U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins, but the OCC said an application for that subsidiary has not been filed. The OCC said any stablecoin activities must comply with the GENIUS Act fully, and it retains sole discretion to determine whether OpenReserve’s structure and activities meet those requirements. OpenReserve must also appoint an independent auditor and prepare financial statements under generally accepted accounting principles, while an independent reviewer must test the bank’s electronic platform, including protections against unauthorized access, malicious software and denial-of-service attacks.
The OCC requires OpenReserve to notify it at least 60 days before its proposed opening date, and the regulator will then conduct a preopening examination covering operational readiness, governance, compliance and technology. OpenReserve’s decision arrives as more digital asset companies seek federal supervision, with the OCC having listed 13 pending digital asset applications in August as Comptroller Jonathan Gould encouraged permissible crypto businesses to pursue national charters.
Broader crypto-charter push
The OCC’s conditional approvals for crypto-related charters have included other firms, and FinanceFeeds said the approvals add to a series of crypto-related charter decisions under Comptroller Jonathan Gould. FinanceFeeds reported that since 2025, the OCC has received 40 de novo charter applications and approved 21, and it also granted conditional approvals for national trust bank charters to companies including Coinbase, Paxos, BitGo, Ripple and Circle. In a separate Reuters report, Reform UK received a £4 million ($5.4 million) donation from Ben Delo, a crypto investor convicted of a banking secrecy violation in the United States and pardoned by Donald Trump, accounting for 75% of the party’s donations last quarter.
Reform said it was "delighted to be supported by successful British entrepreneurs" as it continued to build for the next general election, while Reuters said the party disclosed no donations in the quarter from its biggest donor, Christopher Harborne. The finance and politics threads converge on how crypto actors seek mainstream access, with OpenReserve’s charter process requiring capital, governance, security and compliance before customers can open accounts.