Flexible Finance, which operates as Flex, has applied for a Utah industrial loan charter.
The New York fintech said in a press release that it plans to form Flex Bank in Nehi. The proposed bank would give Flex an FDIC-insured institution to support its products and services as it continues to scale.
Since 2019, Flex has processed more than $40 billion in rent for more than 3.2 million renters nationwide.
The proposed bank would issue Flex’s core credit products, including Flex Rent, directly, while providing Flex customers with access to FDIC-insured deposit accounts.
Jeff Berkson, Flex’s chief banking officer and a former chief risk officer at WebBank, would serve as Flex Bank’s president and CEO.
“A bank charter allows us to build directly on a foundation of federal deposit insurance and full state and federal bank regulatory oversight, strengthening the products millions of renters already rely on,” Shragie Lichtenstein, Flex’s co-founder and CEO, said in the release. “Rent is the single biggest bill in most people’s lives, and it’s often the one least adapted to how they’re actually paid. This charter gives us a permanent, regulated foundation to keep closing that gap.”