Augustus obtains a rare banking license from the U.S. OCC and raises $40 million.

According to Fortune, Augustus, a new type of bank, has obtained a national banking license from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and completed a $40 million funding round. Founded in 2022, the bank already holds a European license to clear cross-border euro transactions. Its clients include the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, and it processes billions of euros annually, with a tenfold year-on-year growth. The OCC has previously issued such licenses to only a few institutions; others, such as Ripple, have mostly held restricted trust licenses. Augustus plans to restructure its cross-border clearing system using AI and stablecoins, bypassing the traditional correspondent banking model that relies on manual approval. Its management team includes former OCC executives and former JPMorgan management.