Lorum, the specialist correspondent institution serving financial institutions globally, has filed an application with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter — a move that challenges the structural foundations of how correspondent banking currently operates.
The thesis is direct: the correspondent banking system isn't broken because of technology or regulation. It's broken because the wrong institutions are running it. As major global banks withdrew from mid-market correspondent relationships, financial institutions turned to regional and fintech-forward banks — but those are lending institutions. They use client money to fund mortgage portfolios and loan books. Their incentive is to hold your money, not move it.
The Cost of a Broken System:
Active correspondent banking relationships have declined more than 20% across the Americas over the past decade (BIS CPMI data)
PSPs, trading platforms, payroll operators, and marketplaces sit multiple hops away from primary clearing systems
Intermediary chains offer no visibility and can terminate without notice
Reduced dollar infrastructure access puts pressure on the USD's utility in global trade
Lorum was founded on a different model: clearing, custody, cash management, and wholesale FX as fiduciary services — backed 100% by cash and cash equivalents, with no lending book. Since 2023, the model has been operational, achieving 55x growth in 2025, with USD clearing representing 60% of volumes.
At the core is Named Account Custody — a structure that gives each account holder a direct legal and operational relationship to the custody framework, eliminating the opacity and chain risk of nested clearing models.
George Davis, Co-Founder and CEO of Lorum, said: "The banks serving this market are lending out the money they are supposed to be moving. That is not a technology problem. It is a structural one. A national trust bank charter is how we deliver Named Account Custody at the scale the market needs."
Lorum is backed by Northzone, Flourish Ventures, Illuminate Financial, and Raba. The charter application is subject to OCC review and approval.