Ripple wins OCC trust bank charter, deepens RLUSD ties with BNY and Robinhood

Ripple has received final approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to operate Ripple National Trust Bank (RNTB), a federally supervised national trust bank headquartered in New York. Announced on 27 October 2026, the approval arrives roughly ten months after the OCC granted conditional clearance in December 2025, placing Ripple in a cohort that also included Circle, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos.

RNTB’s remit is deliberately narrow. It will not issue stablecoins; that function remains with Standard Custody & Trust Company (SCTC), Ripple’s existing subsidiary regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services. RNTB’s role is to hold the segregated reserve assets backing RLUSD on a directed basis, act as collateral trustee for RLUSD holders in a fiduciary capacity, and provide fiduciary cryptocurrency custody services to affiliates and external institutional clients. Alongside the charter news, Ripple announced expanded partnerships with BNY and Robinhood, extending RLUSD’s reach into institutional custody, trade finance, and retail trading channels.

The broader OCC trust charter programme, under which the agency has approved or conditionally approved 21 charters with at least 13 linked to digital asset firms, is facing a legal challenge. The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) filed suit on 2 October, seeking to void the March 2026 rule and interpretive letter that underpin the OCC’s authority to grant these charters. The ICBA argues the OCC exceeded its statutory authority and that digital asset firms gain the credibility of a federal bank charter without bearing the same regulatory burden as community banks. Operators building on RLUSD’s expanded custody and distribution footprint should weigh that litigation as a live tail risk on the programme’s legal foundations.