American startup Augustus received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national clearing bank focused on the AI economy and 24/7 programmable payments.
FinTech startup Augustus, previously known as Ivy, announced that it received conditional approval from the U.S. financial regulator to launch Augustus Bank N.A. The institution will operate as a fully licensed U.S. national bank and focus on instant clearing of major Western currencies for global financial organizations. The bank’s core feature will be infrastructure designed for continuous operation and automated transactions between AI agents.
According to Ferdinand Dabitz, CEO and Co-Founder of Augustus, the current international settlement model based on correspondent banking became outdated, as systems remain closed for more than 100 days a year and transactions can take up to two days to complete. He stated that the Augustus team built a proprietary banking platform from scratch specifically designed for artificial intelligence, programmable money, and automated financial operations.
The platform’s architecture is intended for autonomous operations initiated by AI agents rather than humans. Dabitz believes this model will become the foundational financial infrastructure for the emerging agent economy, where AI systems can independently initiate and execute payments.
Ferdinand Dabitz, a participant in the Thiel Fellowship program, is set to become the youngest CEO of a federally chartered bank in modern U.S. history at just 25 years old. At the same time, the project team also includes experienced banking industry executives. Former Green Dot Bank, United Texas Bank, and H&R Block Bank executive Greg Quarles, who spent nearly 20 years at the OCC, will serve as the bank’s president. The Augustus leadership team also includes former senior executives from JPMorgan Chase, MUFG, Brex, and Revolut.
Since 2010, fewer than ten licenses for fully chartered national banks have been granted in the United States. However, the situation began to shift significantly following the adoption of the GENIUS Act, which authorized banks to work with stablecoins and opened the door for a new generation of banks built around programmable assets. Since December 2025, the OCC has approved the creation of national trust banks by Ripple, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Paxos. The regulator also authorized Bridge to operate as a national banking institution and permitted Morgan Stanley to custody crypto-assets. Meanwhile, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) officially recognized the right of national trust banks to issue payment stablecoins.
