It’s not everyday that a fintech applies for a bank charter, so when SoFi did just that it caught our eye.
But will this be a big bank?
The short answer is no, or not at least for a few years.
Buried in SoFi’s application are details on the proposed bank’s staffing size. The bank will start with nearly 50 staffers. After three years, the bank is expecting to employ slightly more than 100 full-time employees. By comparison, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo all employ more than 200,000 people.
An interesting way to think about employees at the proposed SoFi Bank (there is no word on when the State of Utah will approve the application) is by assets per employee. By Year 3, SoFi Bank expects to have nearly $1.6 billion of assets on its balance sheet. That amounts to about $14.8 million per employee. Bank of America, for example, owns nearly $11 million per each of the more than 200,000 employees.
At least by this count, SoFi Bank will win.