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.
What Connectia Trust will actually do
Connectia Trust will not accept deposits. It will not make loans. In English: Sony is building a very 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.
Not everyone is cheering
The approval didn’t 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 also 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, after all, part of Sony Financial Group, which means Japanese regulators have a say in what its subsidiaries do abroad.