Last week, details arose about a application That giant Fintech strip had appeared for an American banking license.
There was a lot of talk about X on whether this meant Stripe, and the largest private value Fintech would now be adding “bank” to the list of descriptions of what it does.
The short answer is: No.
What is true is that this is the first time that stripe has requested a bank license. But what may not be so clear is that the scope of the license is very limited. This license does not mean that the Fintech company will accept deposits. What it does mean is that if approved, Stripe may process their own payments in addition to having partners that process payments in their name.
A Stripe spokesman told TechCrunch: “In recent years, as the Stripe business has grown, we have significantly expanded the number of banking and other partners with whom we work. This application helps us to guarantee that we have a broader range of options to support our users, and complements the work we do directly with bank partners in the US.
A source familiar with the reasons for the move to become its own container said it gives Stripe directly a bit of additional resistance to process payments. ” Currently, it is Bin sponsors (or sponsorship banks) vary according to geography.
In 2024, Wells Fargo (a former Stripe’s partner) abruptly left Bin’s sponsorship business, where banks help Fintechs access payment networks such as Visa and Mastercard. When banks do this, leave companies as Stripe at risk of service interruptions.
Being able to process your own payments, Stripe depends less on your partners.
If approved, Stripe could have this bank license for the third quarter of 2025.
