FinTech Oportun Seeks US National Bank Charter

Oportun Financial, which provides “inclusive, affordable” financial services, has applied for a national bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), according to a press release.

Raul Vazquez, Oportun CEO, said the charter would allow the company to reach 100 million low or moderate-income (LMI) consumers in the U.S. that the company wants to reach.

He said Oportun worked in dozens of states to offer customers easy-to-afford financial services, and that if the company became a national bank, it would be able to “efficiently provide the security of dealing with a federally-regulated and supervised bank to our customers and other stakeholders,” according to the press release.

“Our existing and potential customers are hard-working people who have historically been shut out of the financial mainstream,” he said, according to the release. “By providing the responsible banking services that these communities need, Oportun is advancing the cause of economic equity and financial inclusion for LMI individuals.”

The average Oportun customer makes around $46,000 per year and is often supporting a family with that income, the release says. Most customers, when first applying, have no credit score or have a credit history too limited to assess a score. Oportun utilizes a proprietary scoring mechanism, along with machine learning, to help provide loans for those not traditionally included in the financial systems.

The OCC has been on board with these ideas before — it proposed a new rule recently that would help to “level the playing field,” PYMNTS reports, through systemization of OCC guidance to help extend services to those who weren’t always included. The proposal, according to the OCC statement, would hope to cut down on banks’ influence on pricing and services, making sure banks meet the commitment to providing services in a fair manner in accordance with their special privileges.