Upstart just cleared a bar that sank Wise.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved Upstart Holdings’ application to charter Upstart Bank, N.A., roughly four and a half months after the AI lender filed. I read the OCC’s own release on its recent charter run: Comptroller Jonathan Gould has been stacking conditional approvals since taking over, pushing national trust bank supervision toward roughly 60 institutions. Upstart’s charter, per the company’s announcement, is a full national bank, not the limited trust variety, and still needs FDIC deposit insurance and Fed bank holding company sign-off before it opens.
The old yardstick for a fintech seeking a full charter was years, not months, and usually ended in withdrawal rather than approval. That yardstick just moved. Nubank, Mercury and Valt Bank got conditional nods too, and Erebor Bank has full approval, but Upstart’s timeline is the tell: the agency is now processing de novo bank charters, not just trust shells.
The Wise contrast is the real story here. The OCC handed Wise its first charter denial since at least 2010, while clearing Upstart’s file in under five months. Same administration, same open door, opposite outcomes: this isn’t a rubber stamp, it’s a door that opens wider for clean AML files and stays shut on flagged ones.
Upstart Chief Risk Officer Annie Delgado, tapped to run the bank, put it plainly: efficiency doesn’t diminish oversight. Worth watching whether the FDIC and Fed move on Upstart’s pending applications as fast as the OCC did.
Rebecca Lauren