How does Mercury ensure timely access to funds in the event that one of its partner banks fails, as seen when SVB collapsed?

That's a good question, and hopefully, no one will ever have to face it. Currently, we have two partner banks, Evolve Bank & Trust and Choice Financial Group, and plan to add a third by the end of the year. If an issue arises with one bank, we can quickly set you up with another one, even at scale and automatically, within minutes.

In the case of a failure, the FDIC is actually quite fast in addressing such situations. We would take care of everything for you, so you don't need to sign up elsewhere, and you can continue using the same interface. We'd make it easy to transfer money across but would need the user's consent. If the funds weren't fully protected, that would be a different situation altogether.

One advantage of partnering with fintech banks like Evolve is that they rely less on lending. A significant portion of their revenue comes from non-interest bearing sources, making them more tolerant as a bank. Traditional banks depend heavily on lending and loans, which can put them at risk.