Mercury receives OCC conditional approval to establish bank in Utah
Mercury, a San Francisco-based financial technology company specializing in providing financial services for startup companies, has received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Mercury Bank NA in Utah.
The firm said the new bank will allow it to deliver its unique vision for banking directly to customers under full federal oversight.
The conditional approval is the culmination of years of work to build a financial platform that will pass the stringent requirements of direct regulation, Mercury said.
Mercury serves more than 300,000 businesses and individuals, generates more than $650 million in annualized revenue and has maintained four years of profitability. One in three U.S. startups banks with Mercury, the company claims.
Mercury provides “almost every tool founders use to build a company” and Mercury sees the new bank as the last in the list of services it can provide to entrepreneurs.
“We applied for this charter because the best founders in the country deserve a bank that was built for them,” said Immad Akhund, co-founder and CEO of Mercury. “Our customers have been asking for Zelle, for expanded lending, for payment infrastructure we actually control. We couldn’t give them those things without a bank charter. Those gaps have always bothered me. This is how we start closing them.”
With the OCC’s conditional approval, Mercury enters the bank organization phase, during which it will work to satisfy remaining requirements and obtain final authorization from the OCC, as well as pending approvals from the FDIC and the Federal Reserve.
Mercury has named Jon Auxier to serve as CEO and president of Mercury Bank. He previously served as CFO of SoFi Bank and corporate treasurer of SoFi Technologies, where he helped lead the implementation of SoFi’s national bank charter. He previously held senior roles at Green Dot, Goldman Sachs and a global accounting firm.
“The work now is earning trust by building the bank our customers deserve,” said Auxier. “That means the operational infrastructure and risk management discipline to match the standard Mercury’s product has already set.”
Mercury announced its intention to pursue a national bank charter in December. The application was submitted alongside an application for federal deposit insurance with the FDIC. In coming days, Mercury Technologies Inc. will separately file an application with the Federal Reserve to become a bank holding company.
The exact location of the bank’s headquarters in Utah has not been determined.
Until Mercury’s bank charter is issued, it will continue to offer banking services to its clients through Choice Financial Group and Column NA, both FDIC member banks.