EPS Financial
“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.