U.S. Regulator Rejects Dutch Fintech Bunq’s Banking License Application
What's happening
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has rejected Dutch neobank bunq's application for a U.S. national bank charter. The OCC said bunq's U.S. operations would be inadequately capitalized, its management inexperienced, and its path to profitability "unrealistic," and asked for more detail about bunq's American expansion plans. This is bunq's second failed U.S. banking license attempt, but the company says it will continue to pursue a license.
Why it's trending
Regulators pushed back after reviewing bunq's U.S. expansion plan, flagging capital, management and profitability concerns now that bunq has applied again.
Signal2.3× its usual volume, confirmed across 1 independent source type.
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If bunq can't get a U.S. charter because it's "inadequately capitalized" and "unrealistic" on profits, maybe the U.S. banking model is the real problem, not the fintechs trying to enter it.
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Original sources11
- OCC Makes US Bank Readiness the Price of a FinTech Charter
A national bank charter promises FinTechs a more direct route into U.S. financial services. But the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is making clear that getting one requires more than transplanting an existing technology or overseas banking model into a federally regulated bank. Two recent rejection letters make that point. As reported […] The post OCC Makes US Bank Readiness
PYMNTSAug 10 - What the OCC’s Wise and Bunq Denials Mean for FinTech Bank ChartersPYMNTS.comAug 10
- US OCC rejects Bunq's national bank charter applicationFinTech FuturesAug 10
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