Simple is an American neobank based in Portland, Oregon. The company provides FDIC-insured checking accounts to US citizens and Permanent Residents through a partnership with BBVA USA and is part of the STAR network for surcharge-free access to around 55,000 ATMs. Since 2014, Simple has been part of the BBVA Group, one of the largest banks in Europe.
History
What was initially known as BankSimple was founded in 2009 in Brooklyn by former CTO Alex Payne, CEO Joshua Reich and CFO Shamir Karkal. The initial seed capital was provided by angel investorJerry Neumann. In August 2011, the company raised $10 million from investors led by IA Ventures, Shasta Ventures and Dave McClure's fund 500 Startups. Later that month, the company moved its headquarters to Portland, where five of the company's 17 employees already resided. The company launched in the summer of 2012 as a limited beta. By January 2013, the company had 20,000 customers and had processed more than $200 million in transactions. By July 2013, its customers had increased to 40,000 and total transaction values increased to greater than $1 billion. At year's end in 2013, Simple reported processing on average around 13 debit transactions per minute with an overall customer balance of $64 million. On February 20, 2014, Simple announced it had been acquired by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria. Paying through its US subsidiary BBVA Compass., BBVA acquired Simple for $117 million or about $1200 per customer. BBVA was also part of the initial venture funding; it originally became interested in Simple in 2011 when a co-founder of Simple criticized the technology of banks and their approach to customer service. On May 14, 2018, co-founder Reich announced his plans to step down as the company's CEO. In February of 2020, Simple announced that its automated, round up savings feature had saved customers 1.2 million dollars in less than 4 months since the feature was introduced.
Business model
In contrast with traditional consumer banks, Simple has no physical branches. Instead, account-holders are issued Visa debit cards and have access to an online banking system accessible through Simple.com or mobile apps for Android or iOS. Simple earns revenue by collecting interest on customer deposits and through the collection of interchange fees.
Features
Simple mobile apps became available for iOS and Android in May 2011 and January 2013, respectively.
Checks up to $9,500 USD are deposited through Simple's smartphone apps, or for any amount by postal mail or express courier. This amount that a customer is eligible to deposit at one time varies based upon length of time with the account has been open and number of checks previously deposited. All deposits are subject to a hold, regardless of customer status.
A bill pay service prints checks and mails them to specified recipients. Previously, Simple did not provide blank checks for customers, nor did it honor checks printed by a third party. However, in February 2018, a limited beta program was rolled out to specific customers which gave customers the ability to request free books of 25 checks via mail, with no fees associated with ordering or banking. This program is currently in beta phase and is gradually being rolled out to users throughout the first half of 2018. Simple’s “Bill Pay” service was shut down on July 9, 2019.
Simple's online banking interface integrates hashtag searching, memos and location-based information for users' transaction history.
Using the Goals feature, account holders are able to schedule automatic savings on a daily basis.
Using the Expenses feature, account holders are able to schedule automatic goal allocations for the purposes of paying bills.
Controversy
Simple Bank does not open accounts for non-citizens. A federal lawsuit challenging this practice was filed in 2018. On November 25, 2019, the court decided that the lawsuit could proceed because federal law does not allow the 'wholesale discrimination' which Simple Bank engages in.
