Fintech Safety Check: Which Bank Actually Holds Your Money

Chime is not a bank. Every account is assigned to exactly one of two partner banks at signup, permanently -- The Bancorp Bank or Stride Bank, both FDIC-insured -- not split or swept between them.

Varo holds its own national bank charter -- the first fintech to receive one directly from the OCC, in 2020 -- so it is, unusually for this list, an actual bank rather than a BaaS partner arrangement.

Current names two partner banks, Choice Financial Group and Cross River Bank, both FDIC-insured, but its own disclosures do not clearly state whether an account is assigned to one or split across both -- confirm the mechanics directly in the app before relying on a specific coverage total.

Dave is in the middle of moving its banking partner from Evolve Bank & Trust to Coastal Community Bank, announced in 2025. Both banks are FDIC-insured, but which one actually holds a given account depends on when it was opened and how far the transition has progressed -- confirm the current bank directly in the app rather than assuming either name is currently live.

SoFi holds its own national bank charter, unlike most apps on this page. The standard $250,000 (or $500,000 joint) is insured directly at SoFi Bank; an optional Insured Deposit Program sweeps balances above that to undisclosed partner banks for roughly $2M in total coverage -- confirm the current cap directly with SoFi before relying on it for a large balance.

The single most important fact about Cash App: coverage is conditional, not automatic. Per the Cash App Terms of Service, a balance is FDIC-insured only if the account has an active Cash Card, or is a Sponsored (teen) account or a sponsor of one. A plain Cash App balance with no Cash Card is not stated to be FDIC-insured at all. Cash Card balances sit at Sutton Bank; direct deposit/ACH activity runs through Lincoln Savings Bank.

Venmo (owned by PayPal) sweeps balances across three Program Banks -- Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase -- for pass-through coverage up to roughly $250,000 per bank, about $750,000 total. The Venmo Mastercard and direct deposit are separately handled by The Bancorp Bank.

PayPal Balance uses the same Program Bank sweep as its Venmo sibling product -- Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase -- for roughly $750,000 in total pass-through coverage. The separate PayPal Savings product sits at Synchrony Bank instead.

Robinhood sweeps uninvested cash across a network of 16 partner banks, reaching up to $2.5M in individual FDIC coverage (about $5M joint) -- among the highest on this list, though brokerage cash sweep is a different product from a checking account and moves more slowly to access.

Wealthfront sweeps cash across up to 32 partner banks, reaching roughly $8M in individual FDIC coverage (about $16M joint) -- the highest total on this list. Pull the current bank list directly from Wealthfront rather than treating a partial list as complete.

Betterment sweeps Cash Reserve balances across up to 8 partner banks for roughly $2M in individual FDIC coverage (about $4M joint). The separate Betterment Checking product is issued directly by nbkc bank at the standard $250,000.

Acorns Checking assigns each account to one of two partner banks, Lincoln Savings Bank or nbkc bank, not split or swept between them, at the standard $250,000 FDIC coverage.

MoneyLion RoarMoney is issued through Pathward, N.A. (formerly MetaBank), a partnership publicly extended through 2029, at the standard $250,000 FDIC coverage.

Albert splits its FDIC relationship by product: Albert Cash sits at Sutton Bank or Stride Bank depending on the account, and Albert Savings sits at Coastal Community Bank or Wells Fargo. A user holding both products can end up with exposure at more than one bank -- check which bank applies to each Albert product you actually use.

The Empower budgeting and cash-advance app (empower.me) banks through nbkc bank at the standard $250,000. This is a different company from Empower Retirement / Empower Advisory Group, the large 401(k) recordkeeper that also does business as "Empower" -- do not confuse the two when checking news about either.

Greenlight, the family/teen debit card app, is issued by Community Federal Savings Bank at the standard $250,000 FDIC coverage.

Included for contrast: Chase is a direct, federally chartered national bank with no BaaS layer -- the app and the bank are the same legal entity, which is not true of most other apps on this page.

Included for contrast: Ally is a direct, FDIC-insured digital-only bank with no BaaS layer, unlike most apps on this page. Online-only does not mean less protected -- it means no partner-bank layer to check.

Yotta is the clearest real-world case for why this feature exists. Its bank of record, Evolve Bank & Trust, was itself FDIC-insured and solvent -- the failure was in Synapse, the middleware company connecting Yotta and roughly 100 other fintechs to their partner banks. When Synapse collapsed, the reconciliation between its own ledger and the actual bank records broke down, and Yotta users could not get to real, insured money for months. Insurance alone did not protect them; clean recordkeeping between the app and the bank did not exist.