Block Pursues National Trust Bank Charter to Custody Crypto
Block aims to establish a national trust bank that would provide custody and related fiduciary services, including those for bitcoin and stablecoins, the company said in a Tuesday (Sept. 8) press release.
Block said in the release that it submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Builders Bank & Trust, N.A.
If approved, the charter would allow Block to support custody and related fiduciary activities through a consistent national framework as the business scales; would create an uninsured national trust bank that would not accept deposits or make loans; and would establish a federal supervisory framework for certain custody and related activities already offered by Block, according to the release.
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Builders Bank would be led by Lee Woolley, who currently serves as digital asset strategy lead at Block and previously served as president and CEO of Treasury Department Federal Credit Union and held senior leadership roles at Northern Trust and BNY Mellon, per the release.
“Building on Block’s experience in the digital asset space, our history with Square Financial Services and the deep banking expertise of the team we’ve assembled, we believe Builders Bank is well positioned to support Block’s broader vision of economic empowerment,” Woolley said in the release. “We look forward to working with the OCC as we pursue a charter designed to support the secure custody of assets for Block and its customers.”
PYMNTS reported in February that a growing number of FinTech companies now see bank charters as powerful tools that can shape how they build their businesses, manage compliance and compete in the market.
The OCC said in an Aug. 11 press release that it has been working to reinvigorate de novo chartering and that amid the priority it has placed on this project, it had received 40 de novo applications in the previous 18 months.
The agency said that before launching that initiative, the OCC had received 48 applications in the previous 14 years, from 2011 through 2024. During three of those years, the regulator received no applications.
“De novo chartering is a sign of a healthy banking system,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould said in the Aug. 11 press release.
