Fintechs still need bank licenses
Anthony Peculic, Head of Cards at Cross River Bank, on building a fintech one-stop shop
The key point is that fintech software does not replace the regulated balance sheet underneath it. Stripe can own the dashboard, APIs, onboarding flow, and merchant relationship, but when money is held, cards are issued, or loans are originated, a chartered bank still has to stand behind the product, run compliance, and connect into the regulated payment system. That is why Cross River can be both a supplier to Stripe and a company building overlapping banking infrastructure.
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In practice, the split is simple. The fintech builds the app that users touch, while the bank keeps the ledger, performs KYC and AML checks, sponsors card programs, and serves as lender of record on loans. Cross River describes this as the bank operating the regulated core while partners own distribution and UX.
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This dependency is economic as well as legal. Much of BaaS profit comes from interchange and deposit economics tied to sponsor banks, especially smaller banks that historically benefited from Durbin exemption. As fintechs scale, they often push for a larger share, which makes the bank license valuable but also turns the relationship into a constant negotiation.
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The closest comparison is not Stripe versus Cross River, but integrated bank infrastructure versus middleware. Cross River and Column combine charter plus software in one stack. Synctera and similar platforms aggregate banks and abstract the relationship. Stripe sits higher in the stack, bundling many financial products, but still depends on bank partners like Cross River for Treasury and issuing rails.
Going forward, more fintech value will accrue to companies that control distribution and developer workflow, but the bank layer will remain a gatekeeper because regulation, compliance, and balance sheet access do not disappear. That keeps chartered, tech forward banks strategically important, even as brands like Stripe try to make financial products feel like pure software.