“Can a tax-vertical embedded finance platform capture the full financial stack — refund disbursement, advance lending, and merchant services — for independent tax preparers at scale?”
Founded in 2009, EPS Financial focused on providing tax-related financial products to independent tax offices, including refund transfers and taxpayer advance loans. Over time, it expanded its product suite to include tax office loans and merchant services (debit/credit card processing). The company became a division of Pathward, N.A. (formerly MetaBank), operating as the banking/infrastructure partner behind its refund transfer and advance products. EPS's embedded finance model is oriented around the tax preparation vertical: it sits between the IRS refund pipeline and the taxpayer/preparer, facilitating disbursements, advances, and fee collection on behalf of 44,000+ independent EROs.
EPS Financial discloses Pathward as its banking provider, with Pathward, N.A. as its sponsor bank, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
EPS Financial does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Pathward, N.A..
EPS Financial processes payments through ePay (self-operated).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 4 layers in EPS Financial's stack: Payments / PSP (ePay (self-operated)); Banking / BaaS (Pathward); Lending (Taxpayer Advance Loans and Tax Office Loans); Sponsor bank (Pathward, N.A.).
EPS Financial is founded in 2009 and headquartered in United States.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against EPS Financial 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.