Flex files application for Utah industrial bank charter
Rent-payment fintech Flex seeks an FDIC-insured bank charter headquartered in the Salt Lake City area
Flexible Finance Inc. (Flex), a financial technology company that offers split payments on essential bills such as rent, has submitted applications to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions to open Flex Bank, a Utah state-chartered industrial bank.
Flex doesn’t currently own a bank and offers its financing through third-party banks. The proposed bank subsidiary would give Flex its own bank, an FDIC-insured institution to support its products and services.
Since 2019, Flex has processed more than $40 billion in rent for more than 3.2 million renters nationwide, helping them avoid more than $780 million in late rent fees, according to the firm. Flex for Good, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by Flex and leveraging Flex’s technology platform, has provided more than $1 million in direct rental assistance to more than 800 households nationwide to help prevent evictions.
The proposed bank would issue Flex’s core credit products, including Flex Rent, directly, helping scale its suite of products and services and providing Flex customers with access to FDIC-insured deposit accounts. This would help Flex expand access to its flexible payment solutions for essential expenses to more customers nationwide, the company said.
Jeff Berkson, Flex’s chief banking officer and former executive vice president and chief risk officer of WebBank, has been named as president and CEO of Flex Bank.
“A bank charter allows us to build directly on a foundation of federal deposit insurance and full state and federal bank regulatory oversight, strengthening the products millions of renters already rely on,” said Shragie Lichtenstein, co-founder and CEO of Flex. “Rent is the single biggest bill in most people’s lives, and it’s often the one least adapted to how they’re actually paid. This charter gives us a permanent, regulated foundation to keep closing that gap.”
The proposed bank would be headquartered in the Salt Lake City area and would operate nationally exclusively through digital channels.
