We advised Morgan Stanley on the preliminary conditional approval from the OCC

Davis Polk advised Morgan Stanley in obtaining preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to charter a de novo national trust bank in the United States, Morgan Stanley Digital Trust, National Association (MSDTNA). MSDTNA has now begun the bank’s organizational phase, which involves satisfying specific OCC conditions for final approval. MSDTNA plans to provide digital asset custody and ancillary services to Morgan Stanley affiliates and their customers nationwide.

MSDTNA plans to support Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, which provides financial services and solutions to individual investors, small- to medium-sized businesses and larger institutions. The main activities of MSDTNA will be custody of certain digital assets and to conduct certain activities incidental to the business of banking, including the purchase, sale, swap and transfer of digital assets to support client investment activities. In addition, MSDTNA will facilitate the staking of digital assets on a fiduciary basis and act as a collateral administrator to support digital asset lending offerings by an affiliate.

The Davis Polk financial institutions team included partners David L. Portilla, Gabriel D. Rosenberg and Zachary J. Zweihorn, counsel Erika D. White and Justin Levine and associate Jackson J. Miner. Members of the Davis Polk team are based in the New York and Washington DC offices.

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