Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank has applied for a national bank charter as it expands its suite of products and services.

On Thursday, the bank said it had filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to convert from an Ohio state-chartered bank to a national bank. A national charter will ensure Fifth Third will be subject to a single set of federal rules concerning activities such as branching and licensing, instead of separate requirements on a state-by-state basis.

A Fifth Third spokesperson told Bank Innovation the move is line with the bank’s trajectory to add services and expand beyond the reach of its current 10-state retail footprint. “As our businesses have grown, both the array of products and services we offer – as well as our geographic presence – have expanded,” the spokesperson said, noting that the bank’s core focus areas include nationwide mortgage originations and servicing, nationwide auto lending and nationwide commercial banking operations, which recently have expanded to California and Texas.

Fifth Third, which has $168 billion in assets, is embarking on a digital transformation to ensure that the majority of its core products can be originated digitally within the next two years, CEO Greg Carmichael said on a first-quarter earnings call last month.

Joel Kashuba, senior vice president of design and innovation at Fifth Third Bank, recently told Bank Innovation in an Ignite Ideas talk that banks need to consider how people are most likely to navigate their day, and learn to anticipate the kinds of offerings they will have to be ready to provide. Banks have “reams of data” on their customers, but rarely can the data tell banks how their customers feel and what obstacles they’re actually facing in everyday life, he added.