The Indicator from Planet Money - Let's play ... Who Wants To Be a Bank!

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

Why do so many fintech companies — like Square and Mercury — want to be banks? And what does it take to get there? Find out today when we play our fake game show … Who Wants To Be A Bank!Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.Your Next Listen —Is this a bank?Connect with The Indicator — Sign up for The Indicator’s weekly newsletter! — Buy the Planet Money book — Find our socials, YouTube and more! — For sponsor-free episodes, subscribe to NPR+ Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong. I'm Ricky Malvey. But Waylon, this isn't the indicator. What? This is... Who wants to be a bank?

This is the game show where financial technology companies vie for a shot at a U.S. banking license. There are all these companies out there that do stuff with our money, but are technically not banks. Payment apps, crypto firms, buy now, pay later companies. They don't have banking licenses, but they want them. In the Trump administration and its regulators want to grant them. In fact, they've already approved more new banks this year than in all of 2025.

Today on the show, why do so many fintech companies want to be banks and what does it take to get there? Find out today on Who Wants to Be a Bank? The games will begin after this word from our sponsor. 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. To explain what's at stake here, we're going to bring on stage Michelle Alt. She's a co-founder of a firm called the Cleros Group. It advises fintechs on becoming banks.

Are you like the fintech whisperer? Well, I like to think of myself as the regulatory whisperer. My jam is helping non-banks and fintechs. techs navigate the very perplexing and cumbersome and Byzantine process of getting a bank license in the U.S. And that involves quite a bit of whispering to the regulators and sometimes shouting. Sounds exciting. And Michelle tells us she's been busy lately. That's because one of the main bank regulators in the U.S. has announced that it is once again open for business. It said there

were years in which very few new banks got approved. And now, wants more fresh faces to increase competition in the industry. And what's in it for the fintechs? Michelle says these companies want greater access to the U.S. financial system, even if it comes with more regulatory scrutiny. It's sort of like, ooh, encumber me, please, encumber me. I love encumbrance. So what are these prizes waiting at the end of the regulatory rainbow?

Michelle, tell them what's behind door number one. Weylin, they've won deposit insurance. Yay! That's right. This prize is furnished by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or FDIC. The government backstop some types of customer deposits up to $250,000. Having this insurance lowers the operating costs for banks, they can collect deposits instead of relying on private, more expensive sources of funding. Now, there are different kinds of bank licenses in the U.S. Most banks get the FDIC backstop. For other types, there are additional upsides.

What's behind door number two, Michelle? Wait, there's more. They also get access to the Fed discount window. That's the ability to borrow money from the Federal Reserve. Very useful in emergencies. All right, let's open door number three. And the biggest grand prize of all, a Fed Master account. This is a bank's account at the Federal Reserve.

It allows a bank to talk to other banks and process payments. This is a critical, critical communication and payment system provided by the Fed. If you don't have that, you don't have a lot. You know, you are not kind of a real bank. Like Pinocchio became a real boy. So these are the fabulous prizes. And now it's time to meet today's contestant on Who Wants to Be a Bank?

I'm Amar Dakin, co-founded and CEO of Mercury. Amad, welcome to Who Wants to Be a Bank. Woo. Woo, indeed. Amad co-founded his company Mercury in 2017. It caters to startups and small businesses, and it offers checking accounts, a credit card, and short-term loans. Now, you might hear that and think, sounds an awful lot like a bank. But Mercury is technically not a bank.

Instead, it partners with other banks. These relationships give Mercury access to, for example, federal deposit insurance. Ahmad says he needed these partnerships at the beginning because he was new to banking, but he always wanted Mercury to eventually become a full-fledged bank. There's definitely things that we want to do that we can't do because we're not a bank. Things like Zell, the widely used service that lets customers send money back and forth between banks, or cashier's checks. These are checks that are essentially guaranteed by the bank. You don't think about how many little things banks do provide.

It's like tens of things and there's a very long tail. But, you know, when you really need that thing, like you really need a cashier's check, it's kind of unacceptable if your bank can't do it. 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. Did you celebrate when you got the conditional approval or did you not want to jinx it? We did celebrate. I mean, we're a remote company, so I think we pop some champagne. And we send each other a bunch of emojis on Slack.

Ahmad Akud of Mercury, thanks for playing Who Wants to Be a Bank. Now it's time to meet a recent winner of the show. Tell the audience who you are. Richard Rosenthal. I am currently the bank president and CEO of Square Financial Services. Richard, welcome to Who Wants to Be a Bank. I'm glad to be here. So tell me, why did Square? want to be a bank. Big picture for us, it's going to be about growing more deposits and balances. Hopefully people will bank more with us to offer the best price, be the most competitive. The best way

to do that is having your own bank. If you've spent money at a small business, you've probably encountered Square. The company makes cash registers and credit card readers. It got approval in 2021 to become a bank. And today, it offers savings accounts and loans to both businesses and consumers. Now, Square got a different kind of bank license than what Mercury is applying for. There is a kind of bank charter designed for businesses whose bread and butter is something other than banking. You just think about the Square point of sale business. Like, there's a hardware, technology, part of that business. That is not a banking business.

So Square has gone through the approval gauntlet, and many more companies are in this process. This year through August, one of the main bank regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, has approved four. 14 applications. That's double the number of approvals for all of 2025. But getting the green light isn't easy. Michelle or Fintech advisor used to be a lawyer at the OCC. She says it recently issued guidance for aspiring banks that she sums up like this. Stop sending us crap. The OCC might be open for business, but there's no rubber stamp here. You've got to do the work. The mountains of paperwork and compliance are to demonstrate that these new banks are up to the task of safeguarding their customer's money. Insolvent or poorly run banks can destabilize the financial.

Crypto company World Liberty Financial got conditional approval from regulators last month. That moved drew scrutiny because of the company's ties with the Trump family. Still, the regulatory welcome mat is out there. Companies like PayPal and Klarna have applied for their own bank licenses. And of course, today's contestant, Mercury. Will Mercury be able to collect those sweet, sweet FDIC in short deposits and earn that shiny new Fed master account? By now next time on, who wants to be a bank? This show is taped in front of a live studio audience. This episode was produced by Andrea Carreras with engineering by Sina Lafredo.

It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and edited by Julia Ritchie. Kaking Canyon is our show's editor and The Indicator is a production of NPR.