“Can a bank-as-software company replace the entire BaaS middleware layer by owning both the national bank charter and the developer API?”
Column was founded in 2021 by ex-Plaid co-founder William Hockey and Annie Hockey after acquiring a small nationally chartered bank (Northern California National Bank). The thesis: eliminate the middleware layer between fintechs and banks by being both the bank AND the software company. Unlike Unit, Synctera, or Treasury Prime (which sit on top of partner banks), Column holds its own OCC national bank charter and connects directly to the Federal Reserve. In 2025 they expanded from pure banking/payments infrastructure into a full-stack credit platform — originating loans, providing capital, and integrating credit with payments/deposits/cards.
Column discloses Column N.A. (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Column does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Column N.A. (in-house).
Column processes payments through Column (in-house). Disclosed money-movement rails: ACH and SWIFT.
Column's cards are issued through Column N.A. (in-house).
Column's lending and capital products are provided by Column (in-house).
Column runs its ledger on Column (in-house).
Column uses Column (in-house) for FX and cross-border payouts.
Column's crypto products run on Column (self-operated).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 9 layers in Column's stack: Payments / PSP (Column (in-house)); Money movement (ACH and SWIFT); Banking / BaaS (Column N.A. (in-house)); Card issuing (Column N.A. (in-house)); Ledger (Column (in-house)); Lending (Column (in-house), Loan origination, Debt financing (warehouse capital), Credit origination and 2 others); Sponsor bank (Column N.A. (in-house)); FX & payouts (Column (in-house)); Crypto (Column (self-operated)).
Column was founded by William Hockey and Annie Hockey and is founded in 2021, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, United States.
Column's acquisitions include Northern California National Bank (2021).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Column and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.