SoFi has officially filed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to create a state chartered bank. The filing is not unexpected as SoFi revealed its intent to pursue a banking charter this past May. In early 2017, SoFi acquired Zenbanx, a Delaware-based firm providing multi-currency mobile banking services in the U.S. and Canada, thus messaging its intent to grow its personal finance offerings.
The FDIC filing indicates that “SoFi Bank” will be based in Utah, due to the beneficial state regulatory approach. The filing explains that the industrial bank will provide customers with FDIC insured NOW accounts and credit card products. No other services are expected to be offered, at least initially. SoFi Bank will be a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of SoFi.
The filing said that “ultimately, SoFi is pursuing the industrial bank charter to offer new and existing members the more complete product set that they seek.”
Arkadi Kuhlmann is expected to be the CEO of SoFi Bank. His current LinkedIn profile lists him as CEO at Zenbanx. Kuhlmann was the founder, Chairman, President & CEO of ING DIRECT, the largest savings and direct bank in U.S. with more than $84 billion in deposits and 7.8 million customers at its peak.
SoFi is quickly morphing into a full-service financial provider. With the addition of current accounts, SoFi will be able to offer customers an entire suite of products and services – all online and without the overhead of physical locations. SoFi has been at the vanguard of the Fintech revolution extolling the virtues of providing superior service at a lower cost all on a smartphone. SoFi received one of the largest Fintech investments of all time when SoftBank delivered $1 billion in capital to help fuel SoFi’s vision of what digitally driven financial services can be. SoFi is also actively pursuing international expansion.
