The bank is Choice Financial Group
Choice Financial Group is the North Dakota state nonmember insured bank, certificate 9423, marketed as Choice Bank. Choice Financial Holdings, Inc. is the parent identified in the bank’s 2024 Community Reinvestment Act evaluation. The similar names do not make the parent and insured bank the same legal entity. [1, 2, 9]
The CRA evaluation describes commercial lending as the primary lending focus, followed by agriculture and home mortgages, alongside traditional deposits. Choice’s own current description adds a technology-bank business that directly integrates banking services into nonbank products. That is a hybrid distribution model, not evidence that its community loan book consists of fintech-originated credit. [2, 3]
The insured bank at June 30, 2026
These are bank-only FDIC financial-report observations for calendar Q2 2026, the latest common reporting period retrieved for this comparison. Dollar fields were supplied in thousands and converted to millions. Balance-sheet items are period-end; net income and cover the first six calendar months, not Q2 alone. Noncurrent loans include loans 90 or more days past due or on nonaccrual. The charge-off rate is annualized. [1]
Equity capital is an accounting amount, not a risk-based regulatory ratio or a claim about excess capital. Loan balances are net of the stated allowance where labeled net. These figures do not isolate partner programs from the rest of the bank. Zero or missing risk-based ratios in the source are not treated as zero regulatory capital; no ratio is supplied when that field is unusable.
Scroll horizontally to see all columns.
| Bank-only measure | June 30, 2026 / stated period |
|---|---|
| Total assets | $6,383.512 million |
| Total deposits | $5,127.914 million |
| Net loans and leases | $3,178.424 million |
| Total equity capital | $718.684 million |
| Allowance for loan and lease losses | $37.536 million |
| Net income, January–June 2026 | $40.012 million |
| Noncurrent loans and leases | $22.024 million |
| Net charge-offs, January–June 2026 | $4.860 million |
| Noncurrent loans / gross loans | 0.68% |
| Net charge-off rate, annualized | 0.31% |
Fintech deposits are not automatically fintech loans
In a March 2023 statement, Choice explicitly described its fintech focus as deposit services and said it did not participate in fintech lending activities. That is a dated statement, not an irrevocable restriction or a complete current product inventory. Current materials emphasize direct integration, money movement and oversight. [3, 4]
Analysis: a bank can gather deposits through a national software platform and deploy funding into conventional commercial or agricultural loans. The deposit customer, platform and borrower may be unrelated. This differs from an originator that extends the partner’s branded credit product and sells the loan to an investor.
Mercury offers concrete evidence of the legal roles
Mercury’s Choice legal hub identifies Choice as provider of deposit accounts and debit cards. Mercury’s broader current disclosure names both Choice and Column N.A.; it identifies Mercury itself as a fintech rather than an insured bank. The relevant account agreement determines which bank serves a particular account. [5, 6]
The Choice commercial deposit agreement was updated September 24, 2026 and identifies customer service through Mercury. This gives a more concrete account of the operating arrangement than a logo: software distribution and first-line support can sit with the fintech while the underlying account obligation belongs to the named banking provider. [7]
Sweeps change where deposits sit
The Choice/Mercury sweep agreement permits allocations among program banks and describes capacity limits, excluded banks and excess placements. Deposits elsewhere at a receiving bank in the same ownership category can reduce remaining insurance coverage. The agreement also makes recordkeeping and communications part of the arrangement. [8]
Analysis: the total cash visible in a fintech interface need not equal deposits retained on Choice’s balance sheet. Counting the same swept funds at the originating bank and receiving banks would overstate system balances. Sweep distribution can affect funding stability and fee economics differently from holding all balances at Choice.
A direct connection simplifies one layer, not every risk
Choice says its BaaS partners work directly with the bank as both bank and service provider. That structure can reduce a separate middleware dependency, but it does not eliminate card processors, networks, software vendors or partner-controlled interfaces. The bank’s description establishes architecture, not a measured guarantee of uptime or loss prevention. [3]
Analysis: direct access can improve visibility when bank and partner records agree. It also means integration quality and change management become important parts of customer service. If a balance, restriction or transaction status differs across systems, the customer needs a coherent answer regardless of how many intermediaries were removed.
Economics combine local assets and distributed funding
The June bank-only figures show the scale of deposits and loans but do not reveal revenue sharing with Mercury or other partners. Deposits are a liability, not revenue, and the noncurrent-loan ratio describes credit performance rather than the quality of deposit onboarding. [1]
Analysis: a successful arrangement can spread fixed technology and compliance costs across many accounts and provide funds for lending. Its benefit depends on retained balances, price paid for funding, partner fees, customer activity and operating expense. Deposit growth concentrated in a few distribution relationships can be correlated even when end customers are numerous.
The 2023 order centers on customer knowledge and transaction monitoring
The FDIC and North Dakota DFI , effective December 18, 2023, requires risk assessment, customer identification, due diligence, suspicious-activity monitoring, lookback work and independent testing. It expressly covers customers onboarded through third parties as well as directly. These historical requirements explain why customer and transaction data quality matters to the business model. [9]
No later official termination or modification of that specific order was verified in the targeted public-source search for this profile; that limited search does not certify its current legal status. The order is not evidence that every customer or partner engaged in misconduct. Nor does a current product announcement establish supervisory clearance for all activities or completion of every requirement. Confidential remediation progress is outside the public evidence reviewed.
What can be concluded about outcomes
Choice’s model connects two different customer needs: conventional local credit and convenient digitally distributed deposit and payment services. A larger digital distribution footprint is not, on its own, proof of stronger earnings, better customer support or lower risk.
The most informative additional evidence would be comparable bank financials, retained versus swept deposit disclosures, dated program agreements and official supervisory developments. Partner-level pricing, active accounts and complaint-resolution statistics were not disclosed in the sources used here; they remain limits on a quantified program-level assessment.
Sources
- FDIC BankFind financials, calendar Q2 2026; retrieved October 4, 2026Official sourceBack to text: ↑1↑2↑3↑4
- Choice Financial Group, FDIC CRA evaluation; 2024 evaluationSource · PDFBack to text: ↑1↑2
- Choice, bank and direct-integration model; checked October 4, 2026SourceBack to text: ↑1↑2↑3
- Choice, financial-position statement; March 13, 2023SourceBack to text: ↑
- Mercury, Choice business-banking legal hub; checked October 4, 2026SourceBack to text: ↑
- Mercury, current banking-provider disclosures; checked October 4, 2026SourceBack to text: ↑
- Mercury/Choice commercial deposit account agreement; updated September 24, 2026SourceBack to text: ↑
- Mercury/Choice sweep agreement; updated January 5, 2024SourceBack to text: ↑
- FDIC and North Dakota DFI, Choice consent order; December 18, 2023Official sourceBack to text: ↑1↑2