Robinhood Terminates Full-Service Bank Application
The trend of commission-free trading began in the United States when a startup firm called Robinhood became operational. Today, the well-known firm has revealed that they’re withdrawing its bank charter application with the United States Currency Office. This charter would’ve enabled them to become a full-service bank in America.
Robinhood announced this information through a mass email to multiple news outlets in the blockchain market. Their email read: “We are voluntarily withdrawing our OCC application for a national bank charter. Robinhood will continue to focus on increasing participation in the financial system and challenging the industry to serve everyone better. We appreciate the efforts and collaboration of all the parties we worked with throughout this process.”
Robinhood applied for their banking charter with the US Comptroller Currency Office. Unfortunately, there isn’t any information as to why this American Firm has withdrawn its application. It should be noted that this decision doesn’t affect any long term services with Robinhood.
The significant setback comes in the form of independence, as Robinhood would’ve had the capability to offer their products without the approval of another banking institution. Robinhood is currently partnered with Well Fargo, HSBC, Citibank and the Bank of Baroda.
Robinhood’s New Services
Robinhood has become one of the most active and consumed blockchain platforms operating in the United States of America. Since they launched in 2013, their popularity has increased yearly at a rate of 14.3%. This is because of their specialized commission-free trading, which has expanded over time to numerous financial services in the cryptocurrency industry.
They first started showing interest in offering standardized banking services when they announced their saving account program and zero-fee checking. This decision caused Robinhood significant backlash, forcing them to remove the new features after regulators and legislators began debating a potential punishment.
This doesn’t mean that Robinhood is failing as a corporation. Instead, they earned $323 million in their latest round of funding. This has put Robinhood at a $7.6 Billion Valuation, which is $2 billion higher than their 2018 estimation. Their new partnered-investors include DST Global, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia, NEA and Thrive Capital.
