• Avant filed with the OCC and the FDIC on September 18, 2026 to establish Avant Bank, N.A., an insured national bank; the filing is subject to regulatory approval.
• The stated funding case is deposits: Avant's CFO says a charter would give access to a lower cost of funds through the introduction of deposits.
• Avant-branded credit products are currently issued by WebBank, and the coverage reviewed does not say that relationship will end.
• Avant reports about 4.8 million unique customers and over $17.6 billion in credit extended; these are company figures, not audited disclosures.
• The OCC has reportedly received 40 de novo applications in 18 months versus 48 across 2011 to 2024, so Avant is filing into a busy period; approval is still undecided.

Avant, the Chicago-based consumer lender, said on September 18, 2026 that it has filed with the OCC and the FDIC to establish Avant Bank, N.A., an insured national bank. The stated purpose is to serve customers directly, expand access to credit and offer banking products and financial health tools through an integrated digital platform. The company describes the filing as subject to regulatory approval and has not specified a timeline.

What Avant actually filed

Avant filed one application addressed to two federal agencies: the OCC, which charters national banks, and the FDIC, which decides deposit insurance. According to the company's press release, the bank would be insured and named Avant Bank, N.A. Chief business officer Charles Whittaker would become its CEO if approved, with Kevin Friedrich as CFO and Margaret Hermes as president and COO. The release calls the filing only a first step and gives no date by which regulators might decide.

Why the funding model is the real story

The clearest economic argument in the release comes from CFO Kevin Friedrich, who says a charter would give access to "a lower cost of funds through the introduction of deposits." Avant-branded credit products are currently issued by WebBank, and PYMNTS reports Avant's most recent personal loan securitization, its 23rd, was a $200 million deal closed in February 2026. Deposits would be a different funding source with different obligations. Any cost advantage is a company projection, not a demonstrated result.

The scale behind the application

Avant says it has served approximately 4.8 million unique customers and extended over $17.6 billion in credit through personal loans and credit cards. These are company-reported figures, and as reported they are not split between loans and cards or tied to a current loan book. The release and coverage reviewed do not state proposed capital or a launch date, so key questions remain open. The company says a charter would let it expand credit access using its proprietary Avant CreditOS decisioning engine.

A busy period for new charter filings

Avant is not filing into an empty field. PYMNTS, citing an OCC press release of August 11, 2026, reports that the OCC has received 40 de novo applications in the last 18 months, against 48 over the 14 years from 2011 to 2024. The reported figures are not broken out by charter type, so they do not isolate fintech or crypto applicants. Avant's filing therefore fits a period of unusually high application volume, though a single application says nothing about the odds of approval.

What this means for readers watching the segment

For fintech lenders and their bank partners, the practical takeaway is to watch three things: whether regulators approve, on what conditions, and how the funding mix shifts if deposits arrive. A partner bank such as WebBank could see the relationship change over time, though the coverage reviewed does not say it will end. For borrowers, nothing changes on the strength of a filing; the release describes WebBank as the current issuer of Avant-branded credit products.