Financial technology company Avant has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to establish a national bank, Avant Bank, N.A.
A national bank charter would allow Avant Bank to expand access to credit and offer banking products and financial health tools in one integrated digital banking platform.
“Since we founded Avant in 2012, our mission has been the same: move financial lives forward for the more than 100 million everyday Americans who are overlooked by the legacy system,” Al Goldstein, co-founder and CEO of Avant, said. “We’ve spent more than thirteen years developing a data-driven approach to credit that serves this population at scale. A national bank charter would further our mission, help reduce our cost of funds, and enable us to offer products under one regulatory framework.”
A bank charter would allow Avant to expand access to high-quality, reasonably priced credit using Avant CreditOS, its proprietary decisioning engine.
“For more than a decade, we’ve worked to give middle-income Americans a fairer shot at credit than their credit score alone would suggest,” Charles Whittaker, Avant’s chief business officer and proposed CEO of Avant Bank, N.A., said. “A national bank charter would let us build and service our products end-to-end with the goal of creating more meaningful value for our customers.”
Avant, founded in 2012, leverages data and machine learning to deliver access to a suite of financial products and services including credit cards, personal loans, and a personal financial management tool. It has served approximately 4.8 million unique customers, connecting them to over $17.6 billion in credit through personal loans and credit cards.
“We recognize that submitting the application is only the first step of our journey – operating a de novo national bank requires sustained discipline,” Margaret Hermes, Avant’s chief operating officer, and proposed president and COO of Avant Bank, said. “We’ve spent years building the compliance and operating infrastructure to support our business, and we believe that foundation positions us well to meet regulatory standards for a national bank. We look forward to working with the OCC and FDIC on this next phase.”
Avant worked with advisors Klaros Group and Covington & Burling in preparing the application.