Payward applies for a US national trust company charter

The application would add a federal custody entity to its existing structure.

Capvise MediaEvent 8 May 2026Published 15 Oct 20261 min read

The Constitution Center office building at the OCC headquarters address in Washington, D.C. — Photo: Constitution Center at the OCC headquarters address in Washington, D.C.; an office exterior, not a depiction of Payward's application or a charter decision. Credit: Tim1965; Constitution Center - 400 7th St SW Washington DC - west facade.jpg; CC BY-SA 3.0; cropped/resized and converted to WebP. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Resized for web delivery

Payward applies for a

Payward announced on 8 May that it had applied to the OCC for a national trust company charter. If approved, Payward National Trust Company would provide fiduciary custody and related services, primarily for digital assets. The company expects to serve institutional clients and some individual customers.

An application is not an approval or an operational launch. Payward describes the proposed entity as complementary to Kraken Financial, its Wyoming special-purpose depository institution. Each charter has a different role in the group’s regulatory structure. The stated aim is to offer custody under federal oversight to customers that require it. The announcement provides no final decision or launch date, so the proposed service should not be described as already available.