One Challenger Bank’s Mission to Own the Entire Customer Experience w/ Wesley Wright

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Across the United States, challenger banks are springing up, such as Chime and Simple. But, within the US, most of these don’t actually have their own charter.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Meet</span> <a href= "https://www.varomoney.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Varo Money</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">— the digital bank that wants to become the first challenger bank to receive its own US charter.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I spoke with</span> <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleywright1/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Wesley Wright</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, Varo’s COO, on</span> <a href= "https://www.currencycloud.com/payments-innovation-podcast/"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the Payments Innovation podcast</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">to hear about why pursuing their own charter is so important. Wesley’s response?</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Because they want to own the entire customer experience.</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What we talked about:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Traditional banks haven’t responded to everyone’s needs</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Varo focuses on long-term, core banking relationship with customers</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Varo’s goal: own the customer experience</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The sponsor bank model versus being a chartered bank</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What would need to change to become their own charter</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How does Varo determine which processes to keep in house and which to outsource?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Varo’s “customer-centr