Varo Money

Varo is an American mobile only neobank based in San Francisco, California. The company provides financial services through its mobile app and currently has 1 million customers.

History
Varo was founded by Colin Walsh and Kolya Klymenko as a way to create a bank that would attract millennials and younger people who were disillusioned with traditional banks. This is part of the reason why the bank only operates through an app and not the website: to make sure the customer experience works well, since it's the main way that people access their banking services. Up until October 1, 2020, Varo was in partnership with the Bancorp Bank to supply the backbone for their banking accounts.

Development
As of 2020, Varo is one of the three largest neo-banks in the United States just behind Chime and Simple. Unlike most neo-banks/fin-techs, Varo applied for a banking license in 2016 in order to become a full fledged bank and develop their own banking services platform internally. This offers a bank like Varo an opportunity to research, develop, and market products and services that would be unavailable to a Fin-Tech with an Outsourced Banking Partner. In July 2020 the The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted Varo its full-service national banking charter.

In April 2020, after the collapse of Moven, its customers were directed to transfer their accounts to Varo as Moven had decided to retreat from the retail banking services and switch to selling its technology services instead.

Overview
Like most online banks, Varo provides no fee checking and savings accounts as well as no overdraft fees. It also provides tools to help budget and keep track of spending as well as free ATM withdrawals through its Allpoint partnership.