FEDERAL COURT, June 15 — Fair Finance Watch
has filed a comment with the Federal Reserve Board
opposing the proposal of OppFi Inc. to acquire BNCCORP,
Inc. and its subsidiary BNC National Bank of Glendale,
Arizona in a $130 million cash-and-stock transaction — and
requesting public hearings before the Board takes any
action.
OppFi is a Chicago-based
fintech company that offers personal installment loans at
interest rates of up to 195-198% APR. That is not an
estimate. It is documented in state enforcement records,
federal consumer complaint databases, and OppFi's own SEC
filings. The District of Columbia Attorney General sued
OppFi in 2021, alleging it charged DC residents up to 198%
APR — more than eight times DC's 24% legal cap.
OppFi settled for over $2 million,
including $1.5 million in refunds to more than 4,000
borrowers and over $640,000 in waived interest.
California's Department of Financial Protection and
Innovation filed its own complaint. Illinois documented
OppFi charging 159.5% APR in defiance of the state's
Predatory Loan Prevention Act.
OppFi's historic business model is a
"rent-a-bank" scheme. It partners with out-of-state banks
— most recently FinWise Bank, a Utah-chartered institution
with no state usury cap — to originate loans, then
acquires 95% or more of each loan through a participation
agreement. The out-of-state bank appears on the paperwork;
OppFi holds the economic risk and the profit. State
regulators have repeatedly challenged this structure.
Courts have found that OppFi, not its bank partner, is the
"true lender."
Now OppFi wants to stop renting a charter
and buy one. BNC National Bank is a nationally chartered
commercial bank with approximately $1.1 billion in total
assets and $1.0 billion in deposits. A national bank
charter comes with OCC preemption authority — the ability
to make loans under federal law rather than state law,
charging rates that state usury caps would otherwise
prohibit. OppFi CEO Todd Schwartz said the deal
"simplifies and strengthens our compliance and risk
management." The "compliance" being simplified is the
ongoing legal pressure in California, Illinois, DC, and
elsewhere challenging the rent-a-bank model.
OppFi says it serves customers who are
"underserved by traditional financing options." FFW
submits that charging those same consumers 160% APR is not
serving them — it is profiting from their lack of
alternatives. The Community Reinvestment Act requires the
Federal Reserve to evaluate whether an acquiring
institution has met the credit needs of its communities.
Triple-digit APR installment loans concentrated among
non-prime and LMI borrowers are not a CRA record. They are
a predatory lending record.
The transaction is subject to approval by
the Federal Reserve - as well as the even more captured
OCC and the FDIC. As Inner City Press has
noted, the OCC recently shut down its Community Affairs
email box; the FDIC has no way of commenting until an
application is filed (and then has made it more difficult
to request and obtain copies of
applications).
FFW has asked the Federal Reserve for
public hearings, noting that
These requests are made in the context of
the Board's lack of transparency on the pending, somewhat
similar application by Enova to acquire Grasshopper Bank.
There, FFW commented early. But the Board withheld all
substantive portions of its February 2, 2026 Additional
Information letter to Enova. Inner City Press requested
all segregable portions under FOIA; this was denied. Inner
City Press appealed; this was denied. Having no other
choice, I filed a FOIA lawsuit in SDNY, Lee v. Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve System (1:26-cv-04556)
District Court, S.D. New York. The Complaint was signed
for by the Fed on June 9, and on June 10 I emailed a
courtesy copy to the Board's Legal Division, asking that a
notice of appearance be made and the merits reached asap.
Five days later, nothing. Nothing at all. So this early
comment.
Fair Finance Watch will submit additional
comments as the record develops. Watch this
site.
