OCC grants Bastion conditional approval for non-depository national trust bank charter

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted Bastion conditional approval to form a national trust bank focused on digital asset custody. The charter is non-depository, meaning Bastion cannot take deposits like a conventional bank, but it does authorize digital asset payment-clearing activities alongside custody services.

• The OCC issued Corporate Decision 1391, dated Friday, September 18, 2026, approving Bastion National Trust Bank’s formation.
• The charter is strictly non-depository and centers on custody, fiduciary and digital asset payment-clearing functions rather than lending or deposit-taking.
• Bastion must still satisfy standard OCC pre-opening conditions covering capital, systems, management and compliance before the bank can operate.

• 1391 OCC Corporate Decision number authorizing Bastion’s national trust charter
• Sept 18 date of conditional approval
• 2026 year the OCC issued the decision, part of its ongoing digital asset charter track

Bastion is moving closer to operating under a federal banking charter after clearing a key regulatory hurdle with the OCC. The regulator’s Corporate Decision 1391 permits Bastion National Trust Bank, still in formation, to proceed with a national trust structure built around custody and digital asset services. That is a narrower grant than a full commercial banking license, but it places Bastion under direct federal oversight rather than a patchwork of state trust regimes.

OCC Decision 1391 Authorizes Custody, Not Deposits

The charter Bastion secured is specifically a non-depository national trust bank.

That distinction matters for how the entity can be used. Bastion cannot accept customer deposits or make loans the way a chartered commercial bank does; its mandate under Decision 1391 is limited to fiduciary custody, asset safekeeping and related digital asset activities.

For institutional funds, corporates and other financial firms evaluating custody providers, that narrower scope is often the point, since it aligns the charter with governance, audit and fiduciary-standard expectations that a plain wallet provider cannot meet.

Payment-Clearing Authority Extends Beyond Storage

The approval also covers digital asset payment-clearing activities, extending the charter’s reach past simple asset storage.

That combination of custody and clearing authority under one federal charter is what distinguishes Bastion’s approval from a standard state trust license, and it positions the bank to serve institutions that need both safekeeping and settlement infrastructure in a single regulated entity.

Federal trust charters have become a preferred route for digital asset firms seeking OCC supervision precisely because they combine those functions.

Bastion Must Clear Pre-Opening Conditions Before Launch

Conditional approval is not a license to operate. Bastion still has to satisfy the OCC’s standard pre-opening requirements, which typically span capital adequacy, operational systems, management structure and compliance readiness, before the trust bank can begin business. The OCC has not disclosed a target date for Bastion to clear those conditions.

The move fits a broader pattern the OCC has followed as digital asset infrastructure migrates into federally regulated structures, echoing dynamics Crypto Coin Show has tracked as banks and crypto infrastructure providers converge on shared rails. Custody firms are pursuing trust charters, exchanges are seeking derivatives registrations, and stablecoin issuers are applying for payment licenses, all under the same regulatory logic that produced Decision 1391.

The CCS read. A federally chartered, non-depository trust bank gives institutional allocators a custody counterparty with OCC oversight rather than reliance on state trust law or unregulated wallet infrastructure. Watch whether Bastion’s pre-opening buildout attracts custody mandates away from state-chartered rivals once the bank clears the OCC’s remaining conditions, since that competitive shift, not the charter itself, will determine whether Decision 1391 reshapes institutional custody flows.

The next milestone is Bastion satisfying the OCC’s pre-opening conditions on capital, systems, management and compliance, a process with no disclosed timeline, after which the trust bank can begin operating under Corporate Decision 1391.