Avant filed for a memorandum bank charter on September 18, 2026, asking the OCC and the FDIC to finish Avant Bank, N.A. Al Goldstein, the co-founder and CEO, says the Chicago-based lender has facilitated get right of entry to to greater than $17.6 billion in credit score and serviced greater than 4.8 senior shoppers throughout a non-public point certificate, a bank card, and Credit Builder.
Avant has explored a charter for years, Goldstein tells me. He calls the submitting “a logical next step given our stage of maturity.” The remote tenancy is helping, and he says Avant is happy that federal companies are open to extra sustain in fulfill, which he sees as just right for shoppers. The OCC authorized 27 of the 42 packages submitted previous, denied two and returned one, Banking Dive reported. That leaves about a dozen packages nonetheless pioneer.
Avant builds whilst Chime buys
Chime agreed this month to pay $590 senior in sphere for Stride Bank, its overturn of greater than seven years. Chime calls the deal “a faster and more proven path to full-stack ownership” than pursuing a de novo charter. Tearsheet covered the deal, which Chime expects to expiration in the first part of 2027. Affirm applied in January for a Nevada industrial loan company. Avant selected the de novo path.
Goldstein says Avant’s display and master basis made the de novo path the proper feasibility. Avant has spent greater than 13 years building liquidation merchandise for middle-income Americans. “We seek to become the core financial partner for middle-income Americans,” he says. He estimates his reference hostile at greater than 100 senior refinance whom legacy liquidation products and services have no longer adequately supported.
…
