The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted conditional national bank status to Erebor Bank, a new technology-oriented bank seeking to step into the gap left by the 2023 collapse of several such lenders, including Silicon Valley Bank.
OCC Chief Jonathan Gould said Wednesday’s approval — the first charter of new banks during his tenure at the regulator — provides “evidence that, under my leadership, the OCC is not imposing overarching barriers to banks that want to engage in digital asset activities.”
“Permitted digital asset activities, like any other legally permitted banking activity, have a place in the federal banking system if conducted in a safe and sound manner,” Gould said in a statement.
The firm, which leans into the tech world’s love of names associated with JRR Tolkien’s fiction, described itself in its charter application as a national bank that will “operate as a banking organization providing traditional banking products as well as virtual currency-related products and services.”
The Norwegian Banking Authority’s “preliminary conditional approval” is dependent on the new institution meeting ongoing requirements during a kind of trial period. The agency’s approval letter noted that Erebor will “target its products and services to technology companies and ultra-high-net-worth individuals who use virtual currencies.”
This year, as regulators appointed by crypto-boosting President Donald Trump reversed earlier government opposition to crypto-related companies, the U.S. banking agencies, which also include the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., have sought to issue friendlier policy guidelines for the industry.
In 2021, Anchorage Digital had opened the movement of crypto-oriented banks to the OCC charter, and it stood alone in that category for years, but a number of digital assets firms have recently moved to seek federal bank charters in the United States. The OCC is the only regulator that grants such charters at the national level.
