Erebor becoming a BaaS provider

This pushes Erebor beyond being a niche bank and toward being infrastructure that other fintechs can build on. In practice that means a company like Infinite can plug into Erebor’s APIs to open accounts, move money over ACH, wires, or stablecoins, and handle settlement without becoming a bank itself. That creates fee revenue from transactions and embeds Erebor inside other products, which is the same playbook that made Column and Lead Bank strategically important.1 2 3 4

• Column is the cleanest comparison on product shape. It bought a bank, built APIs on top, and sells direct access to accounts, payments, cards, ledger, and compliance. The appeal is that fintechs integrate once instead of stitching together a sponsor bank, processor, and middleware vendor.2 3
• Lead Bank shows the revenue logic. Its non interest income has grown with BaaS, card issuing, and stablecoin programs, while Column monetizes with usage fees plus a share of interchange. Erebor’s API customers point to the same mix of fee income on top of spread income from deposits and lending.1 2 4 5
• The tradeoff is concentration. BaaS banks often win a small number of large fintech customers, and those partners can drive outsized payment volume as well as outsized risk if one leaves. Erebor’s named API customers suggest it is starting down that higher leverage, higher dependency path.1 3 5

The next step is a split identity, part vertical bank for AI, defense, and crypto companies, part horizontal banking backend for fintechs. If Erebor keeps adding API partners, stablecoin settlement, and bank products around them, it can compound from each customer twice, once from its own deposits and loans, and again from the transaction volume of companies built on top of it.1 4 5