Morgan Stanley applies for OCC bank charter to custody crypto

Morgan Stanley has applied for a de novo national trust bank charter, allowing the bank to hold digital assets on behalf of its clients — a move in rhythm with its recent crypto expansion.

A public filing with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) shows the application for a bank trust charter was received on Feb. 18 under the name “Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, National Association.”

More details of the business plan were released on Friday, according to reports from Bloomberg and Forbes, revealing that the Morgan Stanley subsidiary will custody certain digital assets and execute purchases, sales, swaps and transfers to support client investment activities, along with crypto staking.

Source: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

A national bank trust charter authorizes a financial institution to engage in fiduciary activities such as trust services, custody and asset safekeeping. “De novo” is a Latin term for “anew,” meaning it is a newly created entity rather than an acquired one.

This is Morgan Stanleys first trust charter with a specific focus on crypto and follows 14 de novo bank charter applications in 2025. There are approximately 60 national trust banks supervised by the OCC in the US.

Rush for crypto bank charters

In December, the OCC conditionally approved five applications for crypto-related national trust banks, including First National Digital Currency Bank, Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos.

Stablecoin platform Bridge, owned by payments processor Stripe, said it received conditional approval for a national trust bank earlier this month, which was followed by Crypto.com on Monday.

Related: OCC proposal seeks to settle stablecoin yield debate, clearing way for CLARITY

Days later, Payoneer, a global financial services firm, said it had filed for a national trust bank charter in the US, which could enable it to issue a stablecoin and provide various crypto services.

Morgan Stanley doubling down on crypto

Morgan Stanley has accelerated its moves toward crypto in recent months. In January, the Wall Street bank tapped equity markets executive Amy Oldenburg to lead its new crypto unit.

Job listings on LinkedIn show the $2 trillion investment bank is also looking to expand its crypto team, advertising positions for digital assets strategy director, digital assets strategist and digital assets product lead.

Morgan Stanley also filed to launch spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) exchange-traded funds in January, and later filed for a staked Ether (ETH) ETF.