SoFi Receives Conditional US Regulatory Approval to Establish National Bank
The approval, if made final, opens the door for the new bank to custody cryptocurrencies.
Oct 28, 2020 at 8:31 p.m. UTCUpdated Sep 14, 2021 at 10:24 a.m. UTC
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Student loan and financial services provider SoFi's application to establish a national bank was granted conditional approval by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), opening the door for the new bank to custody cryptocurrencies.
- In an announcement Wednesday, the OCC said the preliminary approval is conditional pending a thorough evaluation of all information available.
- SoFi Digital Assets, a unit of SoFi, last year was granted a money transmission license as well as a BitLicense by the New York Department of Financial Services, allowing the unit to to provide buy and sell services for bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, ethereum classic, litecoin and Stellar lumens to New York residents.
- SoFi’s conditional approval comes after the OCC published two key crypto guidance letters, the first allowing banks to custody cryptocurrencies and a second clarifying treatment of stablecoin issuers, published two months later.
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