OppFi Scraps $130 Million BNC Bank Deal, Blaming Opaque Federal Review Process
OppFi Scraps $130 Million BNC Bank Deal, Blaming Opaque Federal Review Process #
OppFi has withdrawn its regulatory applications for the proposed $130 million acquisition of BNCCORP and its subsidiary, BNC National Bank, ending the Chicago-based digital finance company’s bid for a national banking charter, at least for now.
The company filed a regulatory update on Tuesday announcing the withdrawal of applications submitted to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC. The underlying acquisition agreement with BNCCORP remains in place, though OppFi has suspended the regulatory path required to close the deal.
OppFi cited two obstacles: the communication restrictions built into the formal application process, and what it described as regulators’ failure to articulate objective standards for evaluating fintech-bank combinations. Without a clear framework, the company said, it could not meaningfully respond to potential concerns.
“We believe that our applications satisfied the existing statutory criteria for approval, but there is a lack of clearly articulated standards by which those criteria are being used to evaluate our applications,” said Todd Schwartz, CEO and Executive Chairman, in the company’s official statement. OppFi added that it had responded diligently to extensive information requests from all three agencies throughout the process.
OppFi announced the deal in April, framing it as a way to combine the company’s digital lending capabilities with BNC’s national banking charter. That charter would have freed OppFi from state-by-state licensing requirements, allowing uniform nationwide operations, an advantage for a lender whose products face varying state-level interest rate caps.
The proposed deal drew opposition from legislators. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Elizabeth Warren wrote to federal regulators urging them to reject the acquisition, arguing that OppFi, which offers consumer loans at high interest rates, would exploit a national charter to circumvent state consumer protections on high-cost lending.
The withdrawal follows a similar episode involving Enova International, which recently pulled its own applications to acquire Grasshopper Bancorp after similar complaints about regulatory opacity. Following that withdrawal, the two senators publicly called on banking regulators to formally clarify that high-cost lenders cannot use national charters to override state lending protections.
OppFi said it plans to engage substantively with federal regulators on developing practical, market- and consumer-based standards for fintech-bank combinations, with the goal of serving what it described as tens of millions of underbanked Americans. The company also reaffirmed its full-year 2026 financial guidance.
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