Catena Receives Conditional OCC Approval for a National Trust Bank Built for AI Agents

On September 18, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted preliminary conditional approval of our application to establish Catena Trust Bank, N.A. (In Organization).

We founded Catena to build a financial institution for AI agents and the businesses that put them to work. Agents need to pay, get paid, exchange currencies, earn a return on their holdings, and manage assets. Businesses need to give them that authority while retaining control of their money.

Our approach to AI safety combines agent guardrails, policy enforcement across multiple financial services and rails, and cryptographic signing controls. Programmable money enables an additional layer: mandates encoded in smart contracts that govern the money flows themselves, beyond the AI models and the software they use.

Becoming a trust bank would mean taking responsibility for how customer assets are held and managed, alongside the controls on how agents use them. Once fully approved, the bank would offer fiduciary digital asset custody, investment management, and trust services under OCC supervision. It carries legal duties to customers and federal requirements for capital, liquidity, and risk management.

Agents will find ways to earn and spend that nobody has thought of yet. We’re building the institution that can safely say yes to them.