Column bought a bank to own charter

The $50M self funded bank purchase tells the core story of Column, it was built by buying the hard part first. Instead of starting as a software layer that rents a partner bank, Column bought a small national bank in Chico and rebuilt it into its own API based bank, so customer accounts, payments, ledgering, and compliance sit inside one regulated entity from day one.1 2 3

• That structure changes what fintech customers are buying. A company like Mercury or Brex can plug into Column to open FDIC insured accounts, move money over ACH, Fedwire, and FedNow, and issue cards through the same bank, instead of stitching together a sponsor bank, middleware platform, and separate processors.2 4
• Founder funding also changed the pace of the business. With no outside investors and ownership concentrated with founders and employees, Column could stay selective, serving a small set of large fintechs rather than chasing hundreds of smaller programs that add onboarding volume and compliance risk.2 3
• The closest comparison is Lead Bank, which also bought and modernized a community bank, but used outside capital and leans more heavily on lending. Column is more tied to neobank and payments flows, with revenue split between interest on deposits and non interest fees like interchange and API transaction charges.2 5

This model points toward a fintech stack where the winners own both the charter and the software layer. As more large fintechs move away from fragile middleware setups, banks like Column that already control the account, the money movement, and the compliance workflow should keep taking a bigger share of infrastructure revenue.2 4 5