WASHINGTON – The Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today approved a deposit insurance application to establish Erebor Bank, N.A. (Erebor Bank), a newly chartered national bank to be headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The organizers of Erebor Bank applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national bank charter and received preliminary conditional approval on October 15, 2025. Erebor Bank’s proposed business model will focus on providing deposit and lending products to businesses and individuals in the technology, payment systems, investment, and defense industries, including virtual currency market participants.
Applications for deposit insurance are evaluated under a statutory framework of seven factors that include: the financial history and condition of the institution; the adequacy of the institution’s capital structure; the future earnings prospects of the institution; the general character and fitness of the management of the institution; the risk presented by the institution to the Deposit Insurance Fund; the convenience and needs of the community to be served by the institution; and whether the institution’s corporate powers are consistent with the purposes of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
FDIC staff found that Erebor Bank satisfied the statutory factors for approval, subject to certain conditions. Among other conditions, Erebor Bank will be required to implement protocols to comply with the FDIC’s regulations regarding processing of deposit accounts in the event of a bank failure, to maintain a minimum 12 percent tier 1 leverage ratio during its first three years of operation, and, in the event it ceases to be considered “well capitalized” or falls below the minimum capital levels required by its primary Federal regulator, to exercise its rights under its Capital Call Agreement to obtain at minimum the amount of capital necessary to be considered “well capitalized.”
The FDIC Board’s approval order expires if Erebor Bank is not established within 12 months, unless extended by the FDIC.