US Challenger Banks: Lessons From the C-Suite
Tune in for first-hand lessons learned from some of the world’s leading neobanks
Wharton FinTech has explored challenger banking over the past few years, interviewing CEOs, founders, and senior executives from 9 leading challenger banks in the US representing >16 M customers. These conversations shed light into how these upstarts are setting the standard for the consumer banking experience. We’ve shared highlights of each interview for you to peruse below. Send us your thoughts, questions, and reactions at whartonfintech@gmail.com!
US-based challenger banks
Chime — Chris Britt, CEO and Co-Founder
Chime has become one of the US’ most prominent challenger banks and is currently valued at $5.8 B. In this podcast, Chris shares Chime’s journey starting from its early days. He describes the company’s customer-centric ethos and how its revenue model is uniquely aligned with its customers.
Varo Money — Colin Walsh, CEO and Co-Founder
Varo Money is another prominent US challenger bank. Varo has made headlines because it is the first neobank to seek and obtain approval for an independent national bank charter. Colin shares the rationale for this decision, as well as his views of what’s next for the company and lessons learned from its early days.
Marcus — Omer Ismail, Head of Marcus US
Marcus is Goldman Sachs’ first-ever foray into consumer banking, and Omer is uniquely positioned to tell its story as employee #1 who has helped scale the business to where it is today. He shares the extensive process that Goldman went through to understand consumer pain points and offer a product uniquely suited to solve those pain points.
Current — Stuart Sopp, CEO and Founder
Current is another leading US challenger bank that expects to have 2 M customers by the end of 2020. Stuart shares the history and vision for Current, including how he and his team dedicated significant time to building their own core technology, which he believes gives the company a differentiated advantage in the industry.
BankMobile — Luvleen Sidhu, CEO and Co-Founder
BankMobile is a one of the largest and fastest-growing challenger banks. It employs a “Banking-as-a-Service” model, which allows it to acquire and serve customers at a lower cost. Notably, BankMobile is the BaaS platform for T-Mobile, helping to power T-Mobile MONEY.
Stash — Brandon Krieg, CEO and Co-Founder
Stash began as an investing app which then expanded to offer a debit card. Brandon shares the company’s story and the rationale for offering a consumer checking account, as well as his broader thoughts on the industry.
Moven — Alex Sion, President and Co-Founder
Moven was one of the first challenger banks in the US. In this interview, Alex shares the vision for Moven to create a new app-based value proposition for consumers. This is an interesting interview to reflect on, as Moven recently decided to exit its consumer-facing bank, instead focusing on its enterprise business which helps banks offer banking services.
European challengers entering the US market
N26 — Nicolas Kopp, US CEO
N26 is one of Europe’s most successful challenger banks. Nic describes the company’s growth in Europe and its decision to launch in the US, including how it plans to offer a differentiated value proposition.
Revolut — Dan Westgarth, North America General Manager
Revolut is another successful UK-based challenger bank that recently launched in the US. Dan shares how Revolut has built on a “stack of niches” to become one of the largest challenger banks with ambitions to expand globally, including its recent launch in the US.
