Join us Sept. 14-16 in Miami to connect with top publishing leaders
Seven years after Moven came out with its Mint-like budgeting app and debit card, it’s establishing a joint venture with Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings. The goal: To buy a bank.
The U.S. company is about to cross five million users globally this year, said CEO Brett King, who has plans to make Moven the first real U.S. challenger bank, a startup with a banking license, which would be called MovenBank. The U.S. is rife with “neobanks,” similar companies like Simple, Varo Money and Chime that have a partner bank in the background. But the FDIC hasn’t issued new banking licenses since 2008 and the Community Reinvestment Act requires that banks have branches. Until the OCC Fintech Charter comes out, there isn’t a regulatory framework for challenger banks in the U.S.
Banks buying startups isn’t anything new. But for financial technology startups, looking to scale or for a license to take deposits, buying a bank it’s a faster route to market than other solutions.
Moven is in talks with “a couple” of small banks with about two branches and healthy balance sheets about a potential acquisition in which the banks continue to run the branches and Moven focuses on the digital banking product.
More in Marketing
Future of Marketing Briefing: The public ad tech era is over
Gone are the days when investors got themselves in a tizzy over ad networks, demand-side platforms and supply-side platforms on their own merits.
By the numbers: Wall Street’s tough assessment of ad tech
Big Tech continues to dominate digital growth, triggering a Wall Street exodus, but are returns imminent?
CMOs are struggling to link AI visibility with sales
Brands are spending on tools that rate their visibility within LLM responses and AI search, but proving the commercial impact of GEO remedies isn’t easy.