SoFi Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SOFI) shares traded 1% higher at $12.18 in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
What’s Moving? On Tuesday, in the regular session, SoFi shares closed 8.6% lower at $12.06.
The San Francisco-based digital financial services company said Tuesday it had gained approvals from key regulators to become a full-fledged bank.
Post the approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve, the road is now clear for SoFi to operate as a Bank Holding Company through its proposed acquisition of Golden Pacific Bancorp, Inc (OTC:GPBI), as per a statement from SoFi.
Sofi will operate its bank subsidiary as SoFi Bank, National Association, and expects the acquisition to close in February.
“With a national bank charter, not only will we be able to lend at even more competitive interest rates and provide our members with high-yielding interest in checking and savings,” said Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi.
Why Is It Moving? In March, SoFi announced it was acquiring Golden Pacific Bancorp for $22.3 million. The California community bank at the time had $150 million in assets.
In October, SoFi received conditional approval from the OCC for its national bank charter.
Last year, SoFi went public through a merger with the Chamath Palihapitiya-led Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings V, a special purpose acquisition company. Noto and Palihapitiya have known each other for over 10 years.
SoFi operates Galileo, a leading technology infrastructure service, which according to a tweet from Palihapitiya serves customers like Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:HOOD), Chime, Dave.com, and MoneyLion Inc (NYSE:ML).
The enterprise banking infrastructure platform was termed “The AWS of fintech” by the SPAC King.
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