SoFi Technologies obtains national bank charter and acquires Golden Pacific Bancorp

SoFi Technologies became the first fintech startup to receive a U.S. national bank charter when regulators approved its application in January 2022. The company completed its acquisition of Golden Pacific Bancorp two months later, paying $22.3 million for the Sacramento-based bank. This charter transformed SoFi's business model. Previously, the company had relied on expensive funding methods like securitized debt and convertible notes. Now it could accept customer deposits at lower costs, similar to traditional banks. The results have been impressive. SoFi's deposit base grew to $40.2 billion within four years. The company's savings accounts offer 3.1 percent annual interest, higher than the national average. Net interest income increased nearly nine times between 2021 and 2025. SoFi also invested in technology, purchasing Technisys, a cloud-based banking system, for $1.1 billion in March 2022.