Rain Seeks US National Trust Bank Charter for Stablecoin…

Rain, a provider of stablecoin payments infrastructure, has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a federally chartered national trust bank in New York. The proposed Rain National Trust Bank would place digital asset custody, stablecoin reserve management and dollar-backed stablecoin issuance under direct federal supervision.

Under the application, the trust bank would provide fiduciary custody of digital assets and US dollars for institutional clients, manage reserves on behalf of permitted stablecoin issuers, and issue and redeem dollar-backed stablecoins within the framework of the GENIUS Act. It would not take deposits, offer consumer accounts or make commercial loans. Client assets would be held in custody for identified owners rather than booked as deposits, and reserves backing stablecoins issued by the proposed bank would not be pledged, lent out or reused. Former Square Financial Services CFO Brandon Soto has been named proposed president and CEO, subject to OCC review. Rain would continue to operate as a payments platform, with the trust bank structured as a separately capitalized subsidiary.

CEO and co-founder Farooq Malik said institutional users of the company's infrastructure want the assets behind their payment programs held by a fiduciary subject to federal oversight. The application is intended to consolidate functions that currently depend on a mix of state licenses, external custodians and third-party stablecoin issuers.

A crowded charter pipeline

Rain joins a growing queue of digital asset and payments firms seeking OCC supervision. Modern Treasury announced its own application on Monday for a limited-purpose national trust bank focused on digital asset custody and related fiat services, though it said that entity would not issue stablecoins or lend. Bastion received preliminary conditional OCC approval in September. Coinbase, Ripple, Circle, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos have also pursued federal trust structures, and Block applied for a national trust bank charter in September.

The filing comes days after the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC in federal court, challenging the legal basis for its expansion of national trust charters to crypto companies. The ICBA argues the regulator exceeded its authority by letting non-depository trust banks conduct activities beyond traditional fiduciary services while sidestepping requirements applied to insured banks. It is seeking to invalidate the OCC's March 2026 chartering rule and Interpretive Letter 1176, and to block further approvals resting on that framework. The complaint states the OCC has approved or conditionally approved at least 21 trust banks, including at least 13 crypto companies.

Rain's application remains subject to OCC review, including a public-comment process, and the proposed bank cannot begin operating without regulatory approval and final authorization.