Plaid co-founder William Hockey made a move no fintech billionaire had dared before: instead of another startup he acquired a bank with a single branch in Chico, California — Northern California National Bank — and in August 2021 renamed it Column National Association, "the bank built by engineers". Today it is the quiet foundation under a visible slice of American fintech, from Brex accounts to Mercury's banking infrastructure.
Who they are and the license
Column N.A. is a nationally chartered bank (OCC charter No. 24626, FDIC certificate 58224): a national license supervised by the OCC, FDIC insurance, operating headquarters in San Francisco. On 12 June 2026 the bank's main office of record moved from Chico, California to Salt Lake City, Utah; Chico remains a branch. The relaunch of the acquired bank went through a formal regulatory procedure — OCC Conditional Approval #1280 (2022) for the change in the composition of its assets and the expansion of operations. The public launch in April 2022 came with API documentation instead of a press tour: Column calls itself the only national US bank built specifically for developers of financial products, and that is close to an accurate description.
Two things set it apart from the entire sponsor-bank roster. First, no outside investors: Column describes itself as 100% founder- and employee-owned and funded with its own money and profits, with no venture cap table. Second, the technology: the core and ledger were written from scratch, the bank connects to the Federal Reserve rails directly (Fedwire, FedACH), and every operation — from opening an account to an international transfer — is an API call priced per use, like SaaS.
Programs and partners
- Brex — the Checking account inside the Brex business account is a commercial checking account provided by Column N.A.; Brex advertises free same-day ACH payments.
- Plaid — a Column client for banking infrastructure (and shared DNA: Hockey co-founded both companies).
- Mercury — Column is one of the two banks behind Mercury's banking services, alongside Choice Financial Group: your US LLC's Mercury account may physically sit at Column.
The product line for programs: FDIC-insured programmable accounts, ACH and Fedwire, international SWIFT transfers to 180+ countries in 135+ currencies, real-time payments (RTP, FedNow), FBO structures and deposit sponsorship, warehouse financing for lending programs, card programs and BIN sponsorship, check issuance.
Scale, per the bank's call reports: total assets grew from $0.73B at the end of 2024 to $1.77B at 30 June 2026; net interest income plus non-interest income was about $48M in 2024 and $153M in 2025, with 2025 net income of $68M. Column itself claims to be the No. 1 issuer of real-time payments in the US.
How the sponsorship works
The key word is direct. Column deliberately does not work through middleware (Unit, Treasury Prime, Synctera): a fintech integrates with the bank's API, and there is exactly one ledger — the bank's. After the 2024 Synapse collapse, when discrepancies between the platform's records and the banks' froze end-customer money, the absence of an extra layer became the model's main selling point.
Program customers' money sits in Column accounts — in FBO structures or on virtual accounts with per-beneficiary records; FDIC insurance passes through up to $250,000 per beneficiary. The bank's economics: fees per API call and payment traffic, deposit spread, and interchange — like any bank under $10B in assets it is Durbin-exempt, which matters for card programs.
Who gets in
Column is strictly B2B: neither companies nor individuals can open an account directly; the bank's client is a fintech or a brand with an embedded financial product. Selection is stricter than the market average: the bank wants programs with a mature compliance function of their own (BSA/AML and KYC/KYB on the partner's side under the bank's oversight), sustainable economics, and an engineering team able to work with a raw banking API without intermediaries.
The standard sponsor-bank oversight cadence — quarterly compliance testing, an annual review, audit rights — applies here too; more in the parent overview.
For non-residents the path into Column is indirect only — through its programs. The practical route is Mercury, which onboards non-resident founders of US LLCs; the Russian-client limits are the same: OFAC screening and no Russian money flows.
Risks and regulatory history
Formally the record is clean: no public enforcement actions against Column in the OCC registers as of mid-2026 — no consent orders, no cease-and-desist. In a market where nearly every key BaaS bank has been through an order (Cross River, Blue Ridge, Evolve, Sutton, Piermont), that is rare and a competitive asset in itself.
One honest caveat: industry press (Fintech Business Weekly) wrote in 2024–2025 about intensifying OCC supervisory attention to the bank as its BaaS portfolio grew. Non-public supervisory measures are common in US practice, so the absence of an order in the register does not equal the absence of a dialogue with the regulator.
The remaining risks are structural. Concentration: the business leans on a few anchor programs — Brex, Plaid, Mercury. The founder-owned model: fast decisions without a venture board, but also key-person dependence. And the industry-wide thread — FDIC attention to custodial accounts after Synapse: the proposed rule on per-beneficiary recordkeeping remains on the table, and Column's direct model looks advantaged rather than exposed there.
Column is what Stripe would look like with a banking license: a national charter, direct APIs, no outside shareholders and no public orders. For fintech programs it is the most technological entry into US banking; for the end client — the invisible foundation under Mercury and Brex.
Q/A
Can I open an account at Column directly?
No. Column works only with programs. Companies and individuals reach the bank through its partners — for example, Mercury or Brex.
How does Column differ from Cross River?
Column is payments and infrastructure on a national charter, with no outside investors and no public orders; Cross River is a lending engine and crypto rails on a state charter, with venture capital and a 2023 consent order. Choosing between them is choosing between payment and lending specialization.
Why does Column have no consent order, unlike half the market?
The direct model removes the main sources of trouble: no middleware means no ledger discrepancies; program selection is strict; compliance roles are fixed contractually and tested by the bank. That guarantees nothing, but the risk profile is below the industry average.
What does Column offer international business?
Through its programs — access to SWIFT transfers to 180+ countries in 135+ currencies and to US payment rails. The bank has no direct relationships with non-residents — only through onboarding into partner products.