How to Build a Bank in a Day

Emerging fintech APIs makes this possible….kind of. While you’re not able to actually start a bank in a day, you can get a consumer finance offering to market incredibly quickly now.

We’re at a tipping point in finance. Your bank that you know and probably don’t love will fade into the background and consumer brands will own the last mile to the customer. These APIs are powering the revolution.

Let’s say I want to offer a checking & savings account, credit/debit card and a premium service to automatically invest some of your money (like Acorns). I’ll wrap a quirky brand around it and focus my marketing on under or poorly served segment of the market (new grads, unbanked, etc…).

Quick look at what it would have taken to do this as recently as 5 years ago:

1. Find a banking partner — They’ll hold the deposits and handle the banking compliance. There’s no list of who will do this, so start working the phones. You’ll also have to convince them your no-name startup is an acceptable compliance risk. This will take awhile.
2. Find card partners — You’ll need a card processor, issuer and payment network partners. You get the picture, this will take awhile also and are individual relationships to be built and negotiated.
3. Build Hairy Software — You’ll need to weave your modern software stack to use the legacy networks these partners work on. This will be painful.

It’s going to take awhile. Be patient and spend a ton of money, you’ll get there.

Now, let’s look at how you get there today.

1. SynapseFi — Set up an account and you’ve got the tools you need for your checking and savings account as well as card issuance. Great, that was easy.
2. Build Modern Software — You’re building on a modern software stack. You’ll be able to deliver and iterate quickly.

OK, this will take more than one day, but you get the point. Once you do get to market you can quickly grow the offering and serve your customers with new products. Want to offer stock trading? No problem, Alpaca has you covered.