Avant filed for a nationwide bank charter on September 18, 2026, asking the OCC and the FDIC to approve Avant Bank, N.A. Al Goldstein, the co-founder and CEO, says the Chicago-based lender has facilitated entry to greater than $17.6 billion in credit score and serviced greater than 4.8 million prospects throughout a private mortgage product, a bank card, and Credit Builder.
Avant has explored a charter for years, Goldstein tells me. He calls the submitting “a logical next step given our stage of maturity.” The regulatory local weather helps, and he says Avant is happy that federal companies are open to extra competitors in banking, which he sees as good for shoppers. The OCC authorised 27 of the 42 functions submitted earlier, denied two and returned one, Banking Dive reported. That leaves about a dozen functions nonetheless pending.
Avant builds whereas Chime buys
Chime agreed this month to pay $590 million in money for Stride Bank, its accomplice of greater than seven years. Chime calls the deal “a faster and more proven path to full-stack ownership” than pursuing a de novo charter. Tearsheet covered the deal, which Chime expects to shut in the first half of 2027. Affirm applied in January for a Nevada industrial loan company. Avant selected the de novo route.
Goldstein says Avant’s scale and working basis made the de novo route the proper name. Avant has spent greater than 13 years building monetary merchandise for middle-income Americans. “We seek to become the core financial partner for middle-income Americans,” he says. He estimates his goal inhabitants at greater than 100 million individuals whom legacy monetary companies haven’t adequately supported.
…
