PANews reported on May 11 that, according to Fortune, the new bank Augustus 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, enabling it to clear cross-border euro transactions. Its clients include the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, and its annual processing volume reaches billions of euros, growing tenfold year-on-year. The OCC has previously issued such licenses only to a limited number of 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.