Sony Bank received OCC approval for Connectia Trust, a national trust bank to issue dollar-backed stablecoins. The conditional green light comes after pushback from banking groups.
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Sony Bank just became one of the most unexpected entrants in the stablecoin race. The company's US subsidiary received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Connectia Trust, N.A., a national trust bank designed specifically to issue dollar-backed stablecoins.
The OCC granted the approval on July 7, 2026, roughly nine months after Sony Bank filed its application in early October 2025. If all goes according to plan, the trust bank could be fully operational by 2027, making the company behind PlayStation a federally chartered stablecoin issuer.
Connectia Trust will not accept deposits. It will not make loans. Sony is building a narrow-purpose institution with one primary job: issuing US dollar-pegged stablecoins and backing them with corresponding reserves.
Beyond stablecoin issuance, Connectia Trust will also provide digital asset custody services and limited fiduciary asset management for affiliates.
Sony has signaled that its initial stablecoin use cases will target its own ecosystem, particularly gaming, entertainment, and payments.
The approval did not come without pushback. The Bank Policy Institute and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition both filed opposition during the application process, raising concerns about the implications for banking competition and fiduciary responsibilities.
The OCC's approval is explicitly preliminary and conditional. Connectia Trust still needs further approvals from both US and Japanese authorities before it can actually start operating. Sony Bank is part of Sony Financial Group, meaning Japanese regulators have a say in what its subsidiaries do abroad.
The move follows a wave of non-traditional firms entering the stablecoin space. Regulated dollar-pegged tokens from established corporate issuers could reshape settlement flows in crypto and traditional payments alike. For now, the clock is on regulatory approvals, not on market share.
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