Rain Co-Founder Seeks OCC Charter for Stablecoin Trust Bank

Rain co-founder Farooq Malik filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Oct. 5 to establish Rain National Trust Bank in New York. The proposed institution would provide custody, reserve management and stablecoin issuance services, subject to regulatory approval.

The application describes the bank as a fiduciary custodian for digital assets and U.S. dollars. It would manage reserves for stablecoin issuers permitted under the GENIUS Act and issue and redeem U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins as the issuer of record.

The proposed bank would not accept deposits, offer consumer accounts or make commercial loans. Reserves backing any stablecoins it issued would not be lent, pledged or reused. Rain’s application says the bank would give companies using its platform access to a fiduciary overseen by a federal regulator.

The OCC has not approved the application. Rain plans to begin operations only after receiving all required approvals, including the OCC’s review and a public comment period. Brandon Soto, former executive vice president and chief financial officer of Coastal Financial Corporation and former chief financial officer of Square Financial Services, has been named the proposed president and chief executive officer.

Malik would remain CEO of Rain, which operates as a payments platform rather than a bank. The company provides stablecoin-based cards, wallets and payouts through an application programming interface. It is a principal member of Visa and Mastercard through separate subsidiaries.

Malik and Chief Technology Officer Charles Yoo-Naut founded Rain in 2021. Malik worked at the North American Development Bank from 2013 to 2019, first in project finance and later as treasurer and investment officer. He oversaw bond issuance and helped develop the bank’s green bond program.

Before joining Rain, Malik worked in strategy consulting, investment banking and infrastructure finance. He studied economics and humanities at the University of Texas at Austin and earned a master’s degree in globalization and development from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

Rain began with a fundraising tool connected to automated clearing house and wire transfers. When an investor paid through a stablecoin, the transaction settled faster and reconciled more quickly than a traditional bank transfer, according to Malik. The founders then focused on stablecoin-backed corporate spending cards.

Rain launched its first card product in 2022. The company raised $24.5 million in a Series A round in March 2025, followed by a $58 million Series B in August 2025. In January 2026, it raised $250 million in a Series C round at a reported valuation of $1.95 billion, bringing total funding above $338 million.

Rain reported that its active card base grew 30-fold and annualized payment volume rose 38% to more than $3 billion in the year before the Series C round. The company has since added global payouts, stored-value services and payment tools for autonomous software agents. Its MoneyGram Card launched on the platform Sept. 10, 2026.

The proposed trust bank would add custody and stablecoin issuance to services Rain currently provides through outside institutions. No stablecoin issued by the proposed bank exists, and Rain would need OCC approval before taking on that role.