Rain Files for a National Trust Bank Charter With the OCC

Published October 6, 2026, 17:45 UTC. Based on Rain's press release of October 5, 2026, via PR Newswire, and reporting by crypto.news.

Stablecoin payments company Rain said on October 5 that it has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Rain National Trust Bank, a proposed national trust bank headquartered in New York, according to the company's press release. If approved, the trust bank would bring custody, stablecoin reserve management, and stablecoin issuance and redemption under a single federal supervisory framework, the release said.

The three lines of business

If approved, Rain National Trust Bank would serve institutional clients in the digital asset payments ecosystem through three lines of business, according to the release. Custody: safeguarding approved digital and fiat assets as a fiduciary, with client assets segregated from the bank's own assets. Reserve management: holding and administering reserves for permitted stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act. Issuance and redemption: issuing US dollar-backed stablecoins as issuer of record in line with the GENIUS Act.

Rain says its partners run stablecoin card, wallet and money-movement programs for millions of end users, and that the assets behind those programs currently sit across state licenses, third-party custodians and third-party stablecoin issuers, according to the release. “The institutions building on Rain want the assets behind their programs held by a fiduciary that answers to a federal regulator,” Farooq Malik, Rain's CEO and co-founder, said in the release.

What the trust bank would not do

As a proposed uninsured national trust bank, Rain National Trust Bank would not accept deposits, offer consumer accounts, or make commercial loans, the release said. It would not be FDIC insured. Client assets would be held as custody assets for identified owners, and the reserves backing any stablecoins it issues would not be pledged, lent or reused, according to the release. Rain itself would remain a stablecoin payments platform and a Visa and Mastercard Principal Member through its other subsidiaries, with the trust bank as a separately capitalized subsidiary supervised and examined by the OCC.

Brandon Soto's charter resume

Rain named Brandon Soto as the proposed president and CEO, subject to OCC review, the release said. Soto was most recently executive vice president and chief financial officer of Coastal Financial Corporation. Before that he was chief financial officer of Square Financial Services, Block's Utah-chartered industrial bank, where he helped prepare the charter application approved by the FDIC and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions and led finance, treasury and capital management, according to the release. He earlier served as chief financial officer and chief administrative officer of Green Dot Bank, and is a CPA. “A trust bank's first job is simple. Know what you hold, know who you hold it for, and keep it safe,” Soto said in the release.

The lawsuit in the background

The filing landed three days after the Independent Community Bankers of America filed a federal lawsuit challenging the legal framework the OCC uses for national trust bank charters, crypto.news reported. The application is now subject to OCC review and approval, including a public comment period, Rain said, adding that the public portion of the application will appear on the OCC's website. The law firm Paul Hastings assisted Rain in preparing the application, the release said.

The bid puts Rain in line with other crypto and payments firms pursuing federal trust charters as the industry looks for federally supervised routes into banking after the GENIUS Act created a federal framework for payment stablecoins. Rain says its card network already reaches more than 175 million merchant locations in over 200 countries and territories, and that it is trusted by more than 100 organizations, according to the release.

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.

Sources

• Rain, Rain Files Application With the OCC to Establish Rain National Trust Bank (Oct. 5, 2026), primary source
• crypto.news, Rain seeks U.S. trust bank amid crypto charter lawsuit (Oct. 5, 2026)
• Basis Desk, Rain Files OCC Application for National Trust Bank Charter (Oct. 5, 2026)