Augustus Wins OCC Approval to Build AI and Stablecoin Bank, Raising $40 Million

This upstart stablecoin bank just won a rare OCC charter and raised $40 million. Its CEO is only 25 | Fortune

"This is the best product in the history of the world but distribution is broken," says Ferdinand Dabitz, holding up a $100 bill. Even though U.S. dollars are the world's favorite currency, says Dabitz, many people seeking to get them must rely on an antiquated system of banks with limited hours staffed by clerks. The 25-year-old Dabitz is the CEO of a new type of bank called Augustus that he says addresses this deficiency thanks to a payments architecture designed around AI and stablecoins, not humans. In a sign that Augustus may be on to something, the bank just received a rare federal banking charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Founded in 2022, Augustus already holds banking licenses in Europe, which permit it to clear cross-border euro transactions. Its customers include large financial institutions, including the global cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, and Dabitz says the bank is processing billions of euros, while growing 10x year over year. Augustus has raised $40 million from Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures and Creandum, and from the founders of prominent digital finance firms Ramp, Deel, and Circle. According to Dabitz, Augustus is only the eighth firm to receive a national bank charter from the OCC since 2010. While the agency has handed out other charters to firms like Ripple, these have been in the form of trust charters and similar "skinny" licenses that can come with significant restrictions like a ban on accepting customer deposits or no access to Federal Reserve master accounts. Augustus has obtained its charter at a time when dollars and euros continue to make up 90% of global trade and, in a statement, the company said its mission is to "secure and advance Western currency dominance by upgrading clearing to the AI era." It is hoping to do so with the help of a clearing system that is built on code capable of interacting with AI agents rather than on the existing legacy system of correspondent banks. Under the legacy correspondent system, an overseas bank seeking to process dollar-based transactions will typically have to obtain a series of sign-offs from employees at an intermediary bank that has access to Federal Reserve accounts. This arrangement is slow since it requires banks to carry out the transactions during business hours across different time zones, and is prone to human error. "We think that's a broken process, and we think there's an opportunity to rebuild it around stablecoins and technology, including, of course, AI," said Dabitz, adding that the foundations of Augustus are built on code rather than legacy paper systems. Augustus currently has staff in New York and Dallas, and plans to ramp up its U.S. presence further now that has its charter from the OCC. Firms like Ripple have been pushing for years to modernize the correspondent banking system, but Dabitz says that lately there is newfound political momentum in the U.S. to do so, leading agencies like the OCC to grant charters to facilitate the process. Dabitz is perhaps an unlikely figure to help lead this transformation. At age 25, he bears little resemblance to silver-haired figures like JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who have long defined the cautious banking industry. Officials at the OCC, however, may have been reassured by Dabitz's team at Augustus, which includes longtime veterans like Greg Quarles, a former executive at the agency and the former CEO of Green Dot Bank, who is serving as the company's President. Augustus's CFO is former JPMorgan executive Joe Schenone, while other members of its C-Suite have done stints at firms like Brex and Revolut. Dabitz himself is the recipient of a Thiel Fellowship, which is awarded by its billionaire namesake to those who drop out of college in favor of entrepreneurship. He says leading Augustus reflects the culmination of a lifelong dream, following a childhood where his favorite toy was a safe, and where his parents likened him to Scrooge McDuck. Like many other kids he liked Harry Potter, though perhaps unsurprisingly, his favorite scenes included the goblin-run Gringotts Bank.

Augustus Wins OCC Approval for AI and Stablecoin Bank Charter

Peter Thiel-backed payments startup Augustus received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a US national bank built around artificial intelligence and stablecoin-based payments. The approval, announced Monday, would allow Augustus to expand its existing European banking operations into the US, as financial firms increasingly compete to modernize cross-border settlement infrastructure using tokenized dollars and blockchain-based payment systems. The company describes Augustus National Bank as "the first clearing bank for the AI era," built on an AI and stablecoin-native core designed to interact directly with machine agents at "the speed of compute," rather than relying on batch processes and human clerks. Founded in 2022, Augustus operates under European banking licences and says it already processes billions of dollars for institutional clients, including cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. Its proposed US national bank charter, however, is still at the conditional approval stage and will only become effective once the OCC's pre-opening requirements are satisfied. Augustus secures OCC conditional approval. Source: PR Newswire Related: Stablecoin issuer Circle faces lawsuit over $280M Drift Protocol hack While companies such as Ripple and Circle have pursued national trust bank charters under the OCC framework, only a limited number of digital asset firms have reached comparable advanced stages in the federal chartering process. The OCC approval places Augustus among a small group of companies that have progressed toward a national bank charter in recent years, according to the release. The move comes as competition intensifies to modernize cross-border payments and stablecoin settlement infrastructure in the US. Under the Guiding and Establishing Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act regime for payment stablecoins, banks and trust companies can issue fully reserved dollar tokens, and a growing group of issuers and payments companies are testing ways to integrate tokenized dollar flows into regulated banking rails. Circle's collaboration with core banking provider Finastra in August 2025, for example, lets banks settle cross-border payments in USDC via Finastra's Global PAYplus hub, and Citi and HSBC introduced live tokenized deposit services for 24/7 cross-border and interbank payments in November 2025. Augustus, backed by Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures, Creandum, and the founders of companies including Ramp and Deel, has raised about $40 million, according to the company. At 25, Dabitz would be the youngest chief executive of a federally chartered bank in over 100 years. Cointelegraph reached out to Augustus for comment, but had not received a response by publication.

Augustus gets OCC conditional approval to build clearing bank for AI era

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. With Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditional approval, Augustus Bank is aiming to build a clearing bank built on a stablecoin and AI-native core. The venture's proprietary core banking system is built from scratch around AI and programmable money and made for machines: designed from the ground up for durable, non-deterministic, agent-initiated workflows. Augustus's subsidiaries are already regulated in Europe and live with euro clearing. Once Augustus Bank becomes fully licensed and operational, it will be able to add US dollars to its platform. The firm, which has raised $40 million, says that co-founder Ferdinand Dabitz will serve as Augustus Bank's CEO, making the 25-year-old the youngest chief exec of a federally chartered bank in modern American history. Industry veteran Greg Quarles - former CEO of Green Dot Bank, United Texas Bank, and H&R Bank - will act as president, with former JPMorgan Chase and MUFG man Joe Schenone as CFO. "Legacy banks are made of paper, Augustus is made of code. It's obvious we need to upgrade clearing to the AI era. But only this unique regulatory moment at the intersection of US financial regulatory innovation, the Genius Act, and AI enables us to finally do so," says Dabitz.

Augustus Gets OCC Green Light to Become National Bank | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. The German company announced the name change Monday (May 11) along with some progress on the banking front, as it has received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a full-service U.S. national bank. Augustus said its goal is to become the first clearing bank "for the AI era," founded on a "stablecoin and AI-native core," as the company said in a news release. "This approval has been driven by our core thesis: the dollar is the best product in the history of the world, with practically infinite global demand - but distribution is broken," the company said in a Monday LinkedIn post announcing the name change. "The existing clearing model runs on legacy correspondents that are closed 115 days a year, built for humans, and take two days to settle." Ferdinand Dabitz, the company's 25-year-old co-founder, will be the bank's CEO. Augustus said this makes him the youngest chief executive of a federally-charted American bank in at least 140 years. Joining him as the bank's president is Greg Quarles, former CEO of Green Dot Bank, United Texas Bank, and H&R Block Bank and himself a former OCC official. Augustus is part of a wave of FinTechs seeking banking charters from the OCC recently, a trend PYMNTS chronicled earlier this year. "Traditionally, FinTech companies have built around banks, not as banks," that report said. "The strategy was simple: partner for access to payments rails, deposit insurance and compliance infrastructure; don't built it from the ground up yourself." That model brought with it speed but left companies dealing with fragility, as sponsor banks could alter terms, and regulators could reexamine guidance. In addition, public scrutiny increased following high-profile failures revealed the limitations of banking-as-a-service. However, receiving a charter is "not a monolith," that report said, as de novo charters in the U.S. apply to range of banking business models. Each are covered by different regulators, operate under different statutes and carry with them a variety privileges. While the headlines can blur these lines, the operational consequences are far from vague, the report added. A bank charter "is not a trophy, and it certainly isn't a product label, but it's a public trust," Rodney E. Hood, former acting comptroller of the currency, told PYMNTS affiliate Competition Policy International, in an interview at the start of the year.

AI-powered bank founded by Peter Thiel protégé wants to replace humans with code -- will it work?

A 25-year-old protégé of billionaire Peter Thiel has built an AI-powered national bank that's mostly run by code instead of humans - a radical departure from the traditional banking system that has endured for decades. Augustus Bank - named after the Roman emperor - revealed earlier this week that it had received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC. That made Ferdinand Dabitz the youngest CEO to receive a conditional federal bank charter in more than 100 Years. In an interview with The Post, Dabitz argued that traditional clearing banks are built on "decades-old technology" and held back by human bankers - creating needless friction in the international banking system despite "infinite global demand" for the US dollar. "These legacy clearing banks, they're made of paper, which means they're very slow and it takes a long time to move money," Dabitz said. "They're closed on the weekends, they close after 5 pm. In fact, there are 115 bank holidays a year." Founded in 2022, Augustus is just the eight bank to receive a conditional charter from the OCC since 2010, according to Dabitz. Modernizing the western model of banking, he said, is crucial to ensure that the US, not Russia or China, maintains the gold standard internationally. Augustus will use stablecoins, which are pegged one-to-one with fiat currencies like the US dollar, to process transactions in real time. Dabitz is a Thiel fellowship recipient, awarded to young entrepreneurs who drop out of college to build tech firms. Augustus's buzzy announcement of its federal charter, which included an appearance by Dabitz on CNBC's "Squawk Box," drew a mixed response from banking experts. Dabitz rightfully points out some of the key flaws of the international banking system, according to Campbell Harvey, a Duke University professor and the author of "DeFi and the Future of Finance." Decentralized financial institutions like Augustus provide an alternative to the SWIFT international banking system, which lacks an obvious failsafe. They also provide the constant bank access that will become increasingly necessary in the age of AI. "It is no longer acceptable to be working bankers' hours," Harvey said. "We need 24/7/365 and decentralized technologies do this." However, the traditional banking system, despite its flaws, has endured in large part because it is so proven and stable. "Those systems are extraordinarily reliable, highly audited, and well understood. Yes, it is frustrating that they are slow and inflexible," Harvey said. "Any new code, like the Augustus 'proprietary code' is untested, and as such, subject to attack." "Overall, while I sympathize with some of the problems that Augustus is addressing, their statements raise more questions than answers," he added. "It is not obvious to me that OCC will grant them a [permanent] charter." It's also unclear if Augustus's AI-powered vision for the future of banking includes proper safeguards against bad actors, according to Cornelius Hurley, a former assistant general counsel of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The company's press release announcing the conditional OCC approval is "long on techno-babble and short on specifics," Harvey added. There's no question "the rails of the current system need improvement," Hurley said. "I am skeptical, however, that the system they describe is in the public interest. "There are substantial AML (anti-money laundering) risks associated with ventures such as this," he added. "The use cases for crypto, for example, are not very attractive to date." Dabitz said Augustus is focused on striking the right balance between AI and human oversight to prevent any hiccups. Executives at the bank will be "in the loop" to review any transaction that could be problematic, such as when suspicions arise about the sender or a name is flagged on a sanctions list. To that end, Augustus has tapped several well-known figures for its leadership team. Greg Quarles, a veteran of H&R Block Bank and United Texas Bank, will serve as the firm's president, while Joe Schenone, formerly of JPMorgan Chase, came on board as CFO. Augustus is trying to gain traction at the same time that the rise of advanced artificial models skilled in hacks, such as Anthropic's Mythos, have raised new questions about bank security. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent notably held a closed-door meeting in which he warned top bank leaders to ensure their systems are protected against AI-powered hackers. Augustus's status as a new institution is actually an advantage in that regard, according to Dabitz. "The thesis on our side is it's easier to adapt to that change if you build from scratch around that new reality than if you retrofit existing systems to make sure they still somehow 'kind of work' in the new world," he said. Dabitz expressed confidence that Augustus would receive final OCC approval within the next few months. An Augustus representative noted that the OCC's conditional approval would establish the firm as a full-service national bank, which, by definition, would be take deposits and have FDIC approval. Augustus plans to apply for a master account at the Fed, which is necessary to be a clearing bank.