Varo was founded to make a powerful impact on systemic financial inequality that Americans have experienced for generations—and Varo’s founders knew that to tackle this head on, we needed to be a chartered national bank. This was a truly trailblazing strategy—no charter had ever been issued to a consumer fintech.

After a three year quest, Varo was the first US consumer fintech to receive a national bank charter from the OCC. The national bank charter allows Varo to deploy its proprietary, cutting-edge technology and directly innovate across a range of financial products to improve the financial health of the millions of Americans who have been overlooked and underserved by the traditional financial system.