Plaid Co-Founder Unveils Bank for Fintechs

Plaid co-founder William Hockey has unveiled his new startup, a Column — an infrastructure bank designed exclusively to assist developers in creating financial products.

According to Hockey, prior to 2022, new financial firms had to operate through costly middleware providers that wrapped traditional sponsor banks. These were based on old and limited core systems.

Hockey paid $50 million for Northern California National Bank, securing a national bank charter, and then built his own core, ledger, data model, direct connection to the Federal Reserve, and robust balance sheet. His new bank focused on developers to make it easy for fintechs to launch their own products.

ACH, book transfers, loan origination, card programs, and debt financing are among the products already listed on the bank’s website.

Column already collaborates with many fintech behemoths, including corporate card unicorn Brex, digital banking powerhouse Oxygen, and Hockey’s former business Plaid. It is now open to everyone.