Following OCC Conditional Approval, Augustus Announces Column's Benjamin Alexander as Chief Compliance Officer
Augustus names Benjamin Alexander as Chief Compliance Officer, bringing 15+ years of BSA/AML and regulatory compliance leadership from Column, HSBC, and JPMorgan Chase to architect the compliance framework for the first clearing bank for the AI era
NEW YORK, May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Augustus, the company building the world's first clearing bank for the AI era, today announced the appointment of Benjamin Alexander as Chief Compliance Officer. Benjamin joins from Column, where he served as Chief Compliance Officer and BSA/AML Officer, and brings over 15 years of compliance leadership across both global banking institutions and high-growth fintechs.
This appointment follows Augustus's receipt of conditional approval for a national bank charter from the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which will enable Augustus to build a clearing bank that is inherently programmable with an AI-native core. Building a new kind of bank requires a new kind of compliance infrastructure. As Augustus prepares to extend its always-on clearing platform to US Dollars — the world's primary reserve currency — the stakes of getting compliance right couldn't be higher.
Benjamin previously re-built Column's compliance infrastructure from the ground up, including their foreign correspondent banking program. Benjamin's further experience at JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and CFSB gives him a vantage point few compliance leaders have: the full stack, from the world's largest correspondent banking networks to the earliest stages of a technology first clearing platform at Column. That combination — large-bank rigor, fintech agility — is precisely what Augustus needs. Augustus is not retrofitting a legacy compliance stack; it is building one from scratch, designed for programmable money, agentic transactions, and 24/7 global operations, and he is the right architect for the job.
"You need to get three things right to nail global clearing for the AI era: the full charter, the intelligent bank core, and an outstanding compliance product," said Ferdinand Dabitz, CEO and Co-Founder of Augustus. "With Benjamin's unique experience, we can turn this compliance platform into a competitive advantage that is always on, made of code and works at the speed of compute."
"After 15 years of navigating legacy systems and institutions, I'm ready to stop retrofitting the old and start building the new. We've reached a rare convergence of banking, stablecoins, and AI— the perfect environment to build a purpose-built compliance stack from scratch," said Benjamin Alexander, Chief Compliance Officer of Augustus.
Benjamin joins a leadership team that includes President Greg Quarles, a former National Bank Examiner and CEO of Green Dot Bank; CFO Joe Schenone, who has successfully transformed two technology companies into regulated banks; Chief Credit Officer Andy Riggs, from the founding team of Brex's Asset Management business; and Chief Risk Officer Kyle Steed, who is a seasoned financial services executive and former bank regulator who was most recently Interim Chief Risk Officer at United Texas Bank.
About Augustus
Augustus is building the first clearing bank for the AI era — an intelligent bank, built on programmable money and AI. Augustus is built to serve global financial institutions, and is already processing billions for market leaders like Kraken today. Augustus was founded in 2022 by Ferdinand Dabitz, Joshua Becker, Simon Wimmer, and Peter Lieck, and has raised $40 million. They're backed by Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures, Creandum, and the founders of companies like Ramp, Deel, and Circle.
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