NEW YORK–A well-known fintech that was among the first to offer mobile-only, low-fee banking services said it is shutting down.
Moven, which offered the Movenbank solution, said it will close in Q2 and focus on selling its technology to financial institutions. The company was founded by Brett King, who is well known in credit unions as both a speaker and an author and whose nine-year-old company was frequently cited as the type of emerging disruptor credit unions needed to pay attention to.
“While our Enterprise business continues to see strong demand, marked by our recent multi-year deal announced with STC Pay based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the impact of coronavirus on our long-term committed funding pipeline has been impaired,” said King in a statement. “Our plans for the spinoff of the direct-to-consumer business have had to be shelved as a result. It has become patently clear we need to focus our energies and our resources on the segment of our business where we can reach the most consumers moving forward, and that is our distributed smart banking and financial wellness capabilities.”
Among the First
Movenbank was among the first of the so-called “challenger banks” that also included Chime, Digit, Dave, Qapital and others. Movenbank received a number of awards recognizing its innovations.
King told CrowdFundInsider.com that moving forward aspiring digital banks might have to consider operating in a more conservative manner.
As part of its new agreement with STC Pay, a Saudi Arabia-based fintech firm, Moven will soon begin providing its mobile banking, budgeting and wealth management software to banks in the U.S.
King discusses the shutdown of the service in a YouTube video here.