MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Fintech companies - think payment apps and crypto firms - are not banks. Even so, many are getting banking licenses from Trump administration regulators. From our Indicator team, here are Wailin Wong and Ricky Mulvey.
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WAILIN WONG, BYLINE: Welcome back to Who Wants To Be A Bank? It's the game show where financial technology companies undergo a grueling process in hopes of winning a coveted banking license and some other goodies.
RICKY MULVEY, BYLINE: To explain what's at stake here, we're going to bring on stage Michele Alt. She's a co-founder of a firm called the Klaros Group. It advises fintechs on becoming banks.
WONG: Are you, like, the fintech whisperer?
MICHELE ALT: Well, I like to think of myself as the regulatory whisperer.
MULVEY: And what's in it for the fintechs? Michele says these companies want greater access to the U.S. financial system, even if it comes with more regulatory scrutiny.
WONG: So what are these prizes waiting at the end of the regulatory rainbow? Michele, tell them what's behind door No. 1.
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ALT: Wailin, they've won deposit insurance. Yay.
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MULVEY: That's right. This prize is furnished by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC. Having this insurance lowers the operating costs for banks. They can collect deposits instead of relying on private, more expensive sources of funding.
WONG: What's behind door No. 2, Michele?
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ALT: They also get access to the Fed discount window.
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MULVEY: That's the ability to borrow money from the Federal Reserve. All right, let's open door No. 3.
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ALT: And the biggest grand prize of all - a Fed master account.
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WONG: This is a bank's account at the Federal Reserve. It allows a bank to talk to other banks and process payments.
MULVEY: So these are the fabulous prizes. And now it's time to meet today's contestant on Who Wants To Be A Bank?
IMMAD AKHUND: I'm Immad Akhund, co-founder and CEO of Mercury.
MULVEY: Immad co-founded his company Mercury in 2017. It caters to startups and small businesses.
AKHUND: There's definitely things that we want to do that we can't do because we're not a bank.
WONG: Things like Zelle, the widely used service that lets customers send money back and forth between banks, or cashier's checks.
MULVEY: Mercury filed for a bank charter last year. The company needs approval from three government agencies total, including the FDIC. In April, they got conditional approval from one. This year through August, one of the main bank regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, has approved 14 applications. That's double the number of approvals for all of 2025.
WONG: But getting the green light isn't easy. Michele, our fintech adviser, used to be a lawyer at the OCC. She says it recently issued guidance for aspiring banks that she sums up like this.
ALT: Stop sending us crap. The OCC might be open for business, but there's no rubber stamp here.
MULVEY: The mountains of paperwork and compliance are to demonstrate that these new banks are up to the task of safeguarding their customers' money. Insolvent or poorly run banks can destabilize the financial system. Still, the regulatory welcome mat is out there. Companies like PayPal and Klarna have applied for their own bank licenses. And, of course...
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MULVEY: ...Today's contestant Mercury.
WONG: Will Mercury be able to collect those sweet, sweet FDIC-insured deposits and earn that shiny new Fed master account? Find out next time on Who Wants To Be A Bank?
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MULVEY: Ricky Mulvey.
WONG: Wailin Wong, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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