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CURATED BYPaul Ivinskas
Sunday Slow Read · Sunday, November 8, 2026 · Issue No. 16 · 7 min readDownload PDF

Fintechs rush for bank charters as Democrats take the Senate

Firms have filed about 31 de novo applications this year, Warren is in line to chair Banking, and the spotlight follows Affirm from its $14.4 billion quarter through the year behind it.

Top 3 if you read nothing else
  1. Affirm, Klarna and Sezzle await decisions on their own bank applications, but the fintech charter wave has met new political resistance: OppFi withdrew its applications to buy BNC National Bank.[1–3]
  2. Democrats won control of Congress, putting Sen. Elizabeth Warren in line to chair the Senate Banking Committee, with hearings, subpoenas and nominee holds at her disposal.[4]
  3. Employers added 165,000 jobs in October, more than double forecasts, yet the S&P 500 fell 2.7% for the week to 7,376.86 after a 4.4% one-day drop on Thursday.[5–7]
Week ahead October consumer prices arrive Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. ET, and the New York Fed publishes its third-quarter Household Debt and Credit Report at 11:00 a.m. ET the same day. Bond markets close Wednesday for Veterans Day, as SIFMA recommends, while stocks stay open. Treasury sells $58 billion of 3-year notes Monday, $42 billion of 10-year notes Tuesday and $25 billion of 30-year bonds Thursday, each at 1:00 p.m. ET. Nu Holdings is expected to report Thursday, and October producer prices close the week Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Markets · close, Fri Nov 6
  • VIX-9.01%
  • Synchrony-0.45%
  • Affirm-2.23%
  • Block+1.71%
Full market recap →
165K
October jobs
vs. ~70K expected
-2.7%
S&P 500, week
close 7,376.86
~31
De novo bank applications, 2026
most in nearly 20 years
$14.4B
Affirm GMV, fiscal Q1
up 34%

The long read: The charter rush, as Democrats take the Senate

The rush
Fintech and digital-asset firms have filed about 31 de novo national bank applications in 2026, Morrison Foerster's Alexandra Barrage told Law.com, a pace not seen in nearly two decades. The OCC said in August that it had received 40 de novo applications over the previous 18 months, against fewer than four a year from 2011 to 2014. It also said it often decides within 120 days of a complete filing.[8–9]
Faster approvals
The approvals are coming faster, too. Klaros Group found that the median time to approval fell to 166 days in early 2026 from 321 days in 2024. American Banker's tracker counts 33 fintech and crypto charter events this year through Oct. 30, among them three charters granted, 18 conditional approvals and one denial.[10–11]
Lenders in line
Consumer lenders have joined the line. Upstart won conditional OCC approval for Upstart Bank in July. Mission Lane won conditional approval for a credit-card-only bank, which Klaros's Michele Alt called the first new OCC card bank in more than 20 years.[12–13]
The pay-later race
All three large U.S. pay-later lenders now have bank applications pending. Affirm filed in January for Affirm Bank, a Nevada industrial loan company, and Klarna applied in July for a Utah bank charter. Sezzle applied to the OCC on Oct. 22 for a national bank, a review that CEO Charlie Youakim expects to take 12 to 18 months.[1–2, 14]
Buying a bank stalls
The other route, buying an existing bank, has run into resistance. Twenty state and District attorneys general asked regulators in July to deny charters and deals to fintechs with a "history of predatory lending or risky practices." Enova dropped its Grasshopper bid in September, saying the process "is susceptible to political pressure," and OppFi withdrew its BNC applications on Nov. 3 while keeping the merger agreement in effect.[3, 15–16]
Warren's gavel
Now that Democrats have taken the Senate, Warren is in line to control the Banking Committee's hearings and witnesses, issue subpoenas and slow nominees, American Banker reported. She has already pressed the OCC: in May she asked Comptroller Jonathan Gould for the applications and legal analyses behind at least nine crypto trust charters.[4, 17]
What to watch
The OCC's approvals do not need the Senate, but deposit insurance from the FDIC is the gating step for de novo banks and ILCs, and FDIC board seats need confirmation. The decisions to watch are the FDIC's rulings on Affirm's ILC and Klarna's Utah bank, Sezzle's OCC review and whether OppFi refiles or ends its BNC agreement.[1–3, 14]

The charter rush, in two numbers

Figures cited in the items above
Median days to charter approval
2024321 days
Early 2026166 days
De novo national bank applications
2011-14, a yearfewer than 4
2026about 31
Sources: Klaros Group (approval times); OCC (2011-14); Morrison Foerster via Law.com (2026).

Spotlight: Affirm, part 1: The quarter

The quarter
Affirm's GMV rose 34% to $14.4 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, and revenue climbed 35% to $1.262 billion against a $1.21 billion consensus. Revenue less transaction costs grew 36% to $617.1 million, or 4.3% of GMV, and GAAP operating margin widened to 14.8% from 6.8% a year earlier.[18–19]
Profit
GAAP net income doubled to $164.2 million, or 47 cents a share, against a 38-cent consensus, and adjusted operating income rose 44% to $379.7 million, a 30.1% margin.[18–19]
Affirm Card
The Affirm Card carried $3.3 billion of GMV, up 117% and now 23% of total volume, and active cardholders more than doubled to 6.0 million. Across the business, active consumers grew 19% to 28.7 million, each making 7.3 transactions over the past year.[18]
Credit
Thirty-day-plus delinquencies on monthly installment loans rose to 2.9%, up 35 basis points from June and 9 basis points from a year earlier. The provision for credit losses climbed to $259.4 million from $162.8 million. CFO Rob O'Hare said Affirm "did choose to run some experiments within the approvals and the origination" and kept those loans on its balance sheet. He added that "the experiment itself was pretty localized to the month of September."[18, 20–21]
Underwriting model
Affirm describes its new transformer-based underwriting model as "quite similar to" the systems behind popular large language models. It said the model's first version "delivered an incremental 3.4% of end-to-end conversion via significantly higher credit approvals, while keeping credit losses flat." On the call, CEO Max Levchin said that means "approving probably two, three points more people" with essentially no incremental loss.[18, 21]
Funding
Funding capacity reached $31.7 billion, up from $26.6 billion a year earlier, and Affirm closed three asset-backed deals totaling about $1.7 billion, including its first five-year ABS. O'Hare said more than 70% of its funding is fixed rate.[18, 21]
Guidance
Affirm raised its fiscal 2027 GMV outlook to more than $65.25 billion from more than $64 billion. It guided holiday-quarter GMV to $17.9 billion to $18.2 billion, with revenue of $1.435 billion to $1.465 billion. "We just wanted to set a responsible floor for growth for the full year," O'Hare said.[18, 20, 22]
The reaction
The shares fell 7.8% on Thursday, in a post-election fintech sell-off that came before the results, and another 2.2% on Friday to close at $68.11. Goldman Sachs, TD Cowen, Barclays, Piper Sandler, RBC and Morgan Stanley all trimmed their price targets while keeping their ratings, and RBC cited credit and funding concerns.[19, 23–24]
On the call
"Credit is job number zero," Levchin said, noting that about a third of the company works on credit. On promotions, he added: "And so I expect 0% volume to go up a lot."[20–21]
Correction
Friday's and Saturday's issues incorrectly said Affirm's loan terms run under 98 days. On the Nov. 5 call, Levchin said the average term is still "very, very short" and that Affirm can deal with any overexposure it takes on today in less than 90 days.[20–21]

Spotlight: Affirm, part 2: The year behind it

Late 2025
Affirm renewed its U.S. agreement with Amazon in November 2025 for a new term running from February 2026 through January 2031, then year to year. Affirm also reset Amazon's warrant strike to $63.06 for new vesting.[25–26]
Winter
In January, Affirm applied for its own bank and signed an exclusive deal with Fiserv to put Affirm installments on debit cards issued by Fiserv's bank and credit union clients. The December quarter brought GMV of $13.8 billion, up 36%, and 3.7 million cardholders.[14, 26–27]
Spring
At its May investor forum, Affirm set a medium-term target of $100 billion in annual GMV, growing 25% or more. March-quarter GMV rose 35% to $11.6 billion.[28–29]
Summer
Canada's CPP Investments renewed its forward-flow commitment in June at $1.7 billion, expandable to $2.2 billion, and Affirm more than doubled its revolving credit facility to $675 million. Stripe opened Affirm to U.K. merchants, and in August Affirm named former CFO Michael Linford president alongside Libor Michalek.[30–33]
Fall
Amazon.co.uk added Affirm in September, and in October Sam's Club made Affirm its exclusive pay-later provider, online first and in clubs early in 2027. New York's financial regulator proposed BNPL licensing rules in July, including an $8 cap on penalty fees.[34–36]
The year in numbers
Fiscal 2026 GMV topped $50 billion. Even so, the stock ended Friday down 7.5% from its close on Nov. 7, 2025, after trading as low as $42.53 in the spring.[18, 23, 26, 37]

Week ahead

Inflation
October consumer prices arrive Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. ET, and October producer prices follow Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET.[38–39]
Household debt
The New York Fed publishes its third-quarter Household Debt and Credit Report Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. ET, with a Liberty Street Economics post on newly delinquent card borrowers.[40]
Fed speakers
Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman speaks on community banking Monday at 8:40 a.m. ET and on supervision and regulation Friday at 10:50 a.m. ET. Gov. Christopher Waller gives an economic outlook in London on Tuesday, and Gov. Michael Barr speaks on AI and inequality Thursday at 10:00 a.m. ET.[41]
Treasury and the holiday
Treasury sells $58 billion of 3-year notes Monday, $42 billion of 10-year notes Tuesday and $25 billion of 30-year bonds Thursday, each at 1:00 p.m. ET. Bond markets close Wednesday for Veterans Day, as SIFMA recommends, while stocks stay open.[42–43]
Earnings
Nu Holdings is expected to report Thursday, and Klarna's third-quarter results follow on Nov. 17.[44–45]

Worth a read

Payments are the new ads
Simon Taylor argues that AI shopping agents break today's virtual-card workarounds, setting up a race between bank-issued network tokens and agent-held stablecoin balances. His case is that payment economics could replace ad revenue as agents pull spending away from ad-supported platforms.[46]
Agents aren't ready
Fortune's Jeff John Roberts reports that Visa ran 22 AI agents through test purchases and found they succeeded only about 57% of the time. It is a sober counterweight to the agentic-commerce pitch that ran through this quarter's fintech earnings calls.[47]
Google's wallet plans
Payments Dive's Justin Bachman talks with Google payments chief Stavan Parikh about turning the wallet into a home for receipts, refunds and offers. Parikh also casts the wallet as the credential layer AI agents will use to pay.[48]
Debit fees in court
American Banker's Kyle Campbell argues that the Eighth Circuit's Corner Post ruling makes a lower debit fee cap close to certain, but not soon. The court found that the Fed's 2011 cap counted costs the Durbin Amendment doesn't allow. He maps the next steps, from a pending Sixth Circuit appeal of a ruling that went the Fed's way to a possible Supreme Court review.[49]

Market recap as of close, Fri Nov 6

Rates & alternativesLastDay30d1y
3-mo T-bill4.00%+1 bp-5 bp+24 bp
5-yr Treasury4.65%+4 bp-37 bp+98 bp
30-yr Treasury5.26%+1 bp-34 bp+57 bp
2s/10s curve+35 bp-3 bp-9 bp-17 bp
SGOV (T-bills)$100.49+0.04%0.0%0.0%
TIPS (TIP)$106.27+0.01%+1.8%-4.0%
TLT (20+ yr)$81.92-0.01%+5.3%-8.3%
Agency MBS (MBB)$92.07-0.03%+2.7%-3.3%
Inv. grade (LQD)$104.53-0.12%+2.1%-5.5%
High yield (HYG)$77.23-0.06%0.0%-3.8%
Lev. loans (BKLN)$20.47+0.24%0.0%-2.2%
AAA CLOs (JAAA)$50.52+0.04%-0.1%-0.2%
Dollar (UUP)$29.13+0.73%+0.1%+3.5%
Gold (GLD)$372.52-0.79%-2.6%+1.2%
WTI oil (USO)$148.41+0.13%-2.1%+108.2%
Banks & cardLastDay30d1y
Financials (XLF)$57.16-0.59%+4.2%+9.3%
Banks (KBE)$65.91-0.47%+4.4%+16.6%
Regional (KRE)$72.20-0.15%+4.5%+20.4%
JPMorgan (JPM)$334.49-0.84%+0.1%+7.2%
BofA (BAC)$49.42-0.68%-9.3%-7.0%
Citi (C)$119.05+0.51%-8.4%+19.0%
Wells Fargo (WFC)$83.94-1.01%-0.1%-1.4%
Visa (V)$422.65+0.01%+9.6%+25.5%
Mastercard (MA)$652.70-0.49%+10.1%+17.9%
Amex (AXP)$320.99-1.22%+4.1%-11.8%
Capital One (COF)$201.87-0.97%+1.3%-6.6%
Synchrony (SYF)$73.74-0.45%+1.6%+0.9%
BFH$101.83-0.72%+1.3%+60.9%
OneMain (OMF)$56.09-1.30%+0.8%-4.9%
Atlanticus (ATLC)$91.23-5.41%-2.7%+64.7%
Fintech & BNPLLastDay30d1y
Fintech (FINX)$24.20+0.04%-3.2%-21.8%
Fintech (ARKF)$41.81+1.21%-12.3%-17.0%
Payments (IPAY)$50.39+0.06%+3.3%-3.4%
PayPal (PYPL)$59.24+0.47%+6.6%-9.5%
Block (XYZ)$85.48+1.71%+11.2%+39.3%
Fiserv (FISV)$62.88+0.22%+38.3%-1.6%
Affirm (AFRM)$68.11-2.23%-15.4%-2.6%
Klarna (KLAR)$13.60+0.52%-3.2%-60.2%
Sezzle (SEZL)$149.43-3.59%+17.0%+164.1%
SoFi (SOFI)$16.21+1.06%+4.6%-38.9%
Chime (CHYM)$31.33+3.81%+4.2%+75.3%
Dave (DAVE)$278.59+1.18%-24.1%+29.1%
Upstart (UPST)$21.89-1.13%-8.6%-40.7%
LendingClub (HAPN)$15.96-1.36%+5.1%-15.6%
Pagaya (PGY)$17.50+0.52%-3.9%-23.2%
EquitiesLastDay30d1y
Nasdaq-100 (QQQ)$656.10+1.40%-12.5%+7.9%
Russell 2000 (IWM)$273.67+0.99%-1.7%+14.8%
Mid caps (MDY)$657.82+0.63%-1.7%+13.0%
Equal-wt S&P (RSP)$216.05-0.38%+1.3%+16.4%
Cons. disc. (XLY)$117.58-0.05%+4.3%-1.3%
Retail (XRT)$89.50-1.72%+6.8%+13.9%
Cons. staples (XLP)$90.08-1.28%+7.8%+18.2%
Tech (XLK)$164.74+1.45%-16.8%+12.3%
Semis (SOXX)$136.53+3.51%-25.9%+35.4%
Health care (XLV)$184.80-0.06%+7.8%+26.7%
Industrials (XLI)$162.67+0.12%-3.8%+7.1%
Transports (IYT)$80.96-1.28%+1.3%+14.4%
Energy (XLE)$61.62-0.02%-6.4%+37.5%
Homebuilders (ITB)$96.53-2.13%+14.4%-0.8%
VIX25.64-9.01%+66.6%+31.4%
Friday closes, Nov 6, IBKR (4 p.m. ET; indices, VIX ~15-min delay); day vs Thu. Refs: 30D weekly open Oct 12, 1Y Nov 2025. 2-yr: Treasury par yield. Dow via DIA. Bitcoin 12:59 a.m. ET Sun, 24h. UUP, USO proxies; price only; SOXX split-adjusted. Markets closed for the weekend.
Sources
  1. Payment Expert: Klarna applies for US bank licence (Jul 6)
  2. Banking Dive: Sezzle applies for OCC national bank charter (Oct)
  3. Banking Dive: OppFi withdraws regulatory applications to buy bank (Nov 4)
  4. American Banker: Democrats sweep Congress, setting up years of oversight for banks (Nov 4)
  5. BLS: The Employment Situation, October 2026 (Nov 6)
  6. Yahoo Finance: The US added 165,000 jobs in October, blowing past expectations (Nov 6)
  7. AP via Yahoo Finance: How major US stock indexes fared Friday, 11/6/2026 (Nov 6)
  8. Morrison Foerster: De novo bank filings surge (Nov 4)
  9. OCC: News release 2026-67 (Aug 11)
  10. Klaros Group: Understanding new bank charter activity (Apr 8)
  11. American Banker: Fintechs asking for, and receiving, bank charters in 2026 (updated Oct 30)
  12. Upstart: Conditional OCC approval for Upstart Bank (Jul 23)
  13. Banking Dive: Mission Lane gets OCC conditional approval for card bank (Sep)
  14. Affirm: Applications to establish an industrial loan company (Jan 23)
  15. Maryland Attorney General: AGs urge regulators to deny charters to predatory fintechs (Jul 15)
  16. Enova: 8-K exhibit 99.1 (Sep 14)
  17. Senate Banking Committee minority: Warren presses OCC on special charters (May 19)
  18. Affirm: Fiscal Q1 2027 shareholder letter (Nov 5)
  19. Investing.com: Why is Affirm stock sliding today? (Nov 6)
  20. Affirm fiscal Q1 2027 earnings call transcript, via TradingKey (Nov 5)
  21. Affirm fiscal Q1 2027 earnings call transcript, via Gloom (Nov 5)
  22. Investing.com: Affirm beats, raises full-year GMV outlook (Nov 5)
  23. Interactive Brokers: AFRM daily closes, Nov. 7, 2025 to Nov. 6, 2026
  24. Investing.com: RBC cuts Affirm price target on credit and funding concerns (Nov 6)
  25. Affirm: 8-K on amended Amazon agreement (Nov 2025)
  26. Affirm: Fiscal Q2 2026 shareholder letter (Feb 5)
  27. Affirm: Fiserv and Affirm bring flexible payments to debit (Jan 26)
  28. American Banker: Affirm seeks bank apps to build its BNPL empire (May 12)
  29. Affirm: Fiscal Q3 2026 shareholder letter (May 7)
  30. Affirm: CPP Investments renews and expands capital partnership (Jun 4)
  31. Affirm: 8-K on credit facility and board appointment (Jun 18)
  32. Affirm: Affirm and Stripe team up for UK payments (Jun 2)
  33. Affirm: 8-K on leadership appointment (Aug 25)
  34. PYMNTS: Amazon expands UK BNPL footprint with Affirm (Sep 23)
  35. PaymentsJournal: Sam's Club taps Affirm as exclusive BNPL provider (Oct 22)
  36. Orrick InfoBytes: NYDFS proposes BNPL licensing rule (Jul 24)
  37. American Banker: Affirm extends hot streak (Aug 27)
  38. BLS: Consumer Price Index release schedule
  39. BLS: November 2026 release calendar
  40. New York Fed: Q3 2026 Household Debt and Credit Report media advisory (Nov 4)
  41. Federal Reserve: November 2026 calendar
  42. U.S. Treasury: Quarterly refunding statement (Nov 4)
  43. SIFMA: Veterans Day 2026 fixed-income close recommendation
  44. Stock Titan: Earnings calendar for the week of Nov. 9, 2026 (Nov 6)
  45. Klarna: Third-quarter results date, via Nasdaq (Oct 22)
  46. Fintech Brainfood (Simon Taylor): Payments are the new ads (Nov 4)
  47. Fortune (Jeff John Roberts): Visa tested AI shopping agents (Nov 5)
  48. Payments Dive (Justin Bachman): Google makes big plans for wallet (Nov 3)
  49. American Banker (Kyle Campbell): Court ruling makes lower swipe fees likely, not imminent (Nov 6)
Previous issueSat, Nov 7 · Stocks tumble, hiring surges and fintechs raise their outlooks

Sources are linked in every issue. Confirm figures against the original filings before relying on them.