US Regulator Will Start Issuing Bank Charters for Fintech Firms

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will allow upstarts to become ‘special purpose national banks’

Firms offering online loans, smartphone payments and other financial technology products would get new flexibility to expand and further shake up the U.S. banking industry under a proposed new federal policy.

A top regulator said Friday that his agency would for the first time start granting banking licenses to “fintech” firms, giving them greater freedom to operate across the country without seeking state-by-state permission or joining with brick-and-mortar banks.

The move could open the door to more competition between the old and new financial firms, and provide a bigger opening for some large tech companies to consider new ways to offer digital payments or other services.

Read the full article in the Wall Street Journal.

One such fintech company just launched in the real-time cross borders payment space, providing a competitive alternative to the existing opaque, siloed and inefficient banking networks.

Built on a common global infrastructure and bringing new efficiencies to financial remittances by enabling near real-time settlements, improving visibility and reducing risk, Flash Payments delivers tangible advantages from both a technical and financial perspective.

Based in Sydney Australia, Flash Payments is a cutting edge fin-tech startup engineered from the ground up to deliver intelligent foreign exchange transfer services, without hidden fees.

Flash Payments provides a lean high-performance foreign exchange transfer payment services that safely, efficiently and reliably provides users with a better customer experience.

Using the innovative Ripple technology platform and XRP, Ripple's digital currency, Flash Payments delivers extraordinary transparency, speed and transactional control to users.

The technology tightly integrates payments messaging with funds settlements, allowing for unprecedented visibility and performance.

Flash Payments puts their customers in control. They can choose a target conversion rate, automate the international money transfer and track their currency transfer, like a package, from start to finish.

Learn more about Flash Payments and sign up to benefit from their cutting-edge technology, great rates, transparency and control.