Summary
Darragh Buckley, Stripe's first employee and founder of Increase, has officially launched Increase Bank — an FDIC-member institution created by acquiring and rebuilding Twin City Bank of Longview, Washington. The launch collapses the traditional three-layer banking-as-a-service (BaaS) structure that has defined fintech infrastructure for a decade, eliminating the middleware ledger divergence that caused the Synapse disaster. Increase Bank is an API-first bank designed for technology companies building payment, banking, and embedded finance products.
Key Facts
- Increase founder Darragh Buckley was Stripe's first employee; founded Increase in 2020
- Acquired Twin City Bank ($70M assets) via its holding company in April 2025; FDIC non-objection received
- Twin City Bank's assets grew 48% to $114.5M in the year after acquisition
- Increase processes hundreds of billions annually across ACH, wires, RTP, FedNow, checks, and cards
- Monthly payment volume tripled year over year
- Increase became profitable in 2025, remains self-funded
- Existing clients include Gusto, Ramp, and Stripe
- Direct connections to FedACH, Fedwire, Check 21, RTP, FedNow, and Visa
- No middleware ledger — one entity, one record, reconciling to the Federal Reserve in real time
Why It Matters
Increase Bank represents the most concrete architectural response to the BaaS regulatory crisis triggered by the Synapse collapse. The three-layer model (fintech + middleware + sponsor bank) created a structural seam where ledgers could diverge with no authoritative single record. By owning the charter and the technology under one roof, Increase eliminates that seam entirely. The launch signals a broader trend: fintech infrastructure providers are increasingly pursuing vertical integration through bank charter acquisition. Column (William Hockey of Plaid) took the same approach. The question the market will answer is whether the credibility advantage of owning a charter outweighs the regulatory constraints it imposes.