Fintech Marqeta pushes into banking for next growth phase

Marqeta

24/10/2022 19:51

By Hannah Lang
       Oct 24 (Reuters) - Marqeta, a fintech company focused on
payments services, is launching a suite of new banking products
in a major push to deepen its relationships with customers which
include Coinbase, Uber and DoorDash.
    The new "banking as a service" platform includes 40 new
application programming interfaces, or APIs, that will be
offered through Marqeta’s existing bank partners to provide
customers with "demand deposit" accounts (such as checking
accounts), early-pay capabilities and instant funding, along
with other features.
    The announcement comes at a critical juncture for the
Oakland, California-based company, whose stock is down more than
50% since the beginning of this year, while executives search
for a new chief executive to replace co-founder Jason Gardner,
who announced in August he would step down.
    “We have a strong vision over the next several decades that
we believe customers will come to Marqeta to build these next
generation products,” Gardner, who will stay on as executive
chairman after the company appoints a new CEO, said in an
interview. 
    “We're pretty certain this is where the world is going to
move, and we've had a good track record thus far of being able
to predict what companies need from financial services
infrastructure and helping them along the way.”
    Banking-as-a-service, the practice of offering banking
products and services through third-party providers, has surged
in popularity in recent years, as businesses have looked to
bring financial services traditionally offered through a bank
directly to their customers. 
    Coinbase and Branch, a company aimed at facilitating
payments for contractors, are already using Marqeta’s new
banking services, Marqeta said in a release. 
    Coinbase has “seen many benefits from the flexibility of
Marqeta's banking as a service tools,” Sanchan Saxena, vice
president of retail product at the crypto exchange, said in a
statement.
    Most of the new banking features are already up and running
and Marqeta expects all products to be operational by the end of
this year. 
    Gardner said that while the company doesn’t have a timeline
in place to name a new CEO, it is moving quickly to find the
right candidate. 
    “The market wants us to move as fast as possible, and that's
part of my goal too, but I need to make the best, most-informed
decision,” he said. 
 (Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington; Editing by David
Holmes)
 ((Hannah.Lang@thomsonreuters.com;))