Coastal Community Bank's CCBX Division Onboards Six New BaaS Partners
Coastal Community Bank, through its CCBX Banking-as-a-Service division, accelerated its sponsor bank partnerships by onboarding six new fintech partners during the first half of 2021. The new partners include Greenwood (a digital bank serving Black and Brown communities), One, Sable (immigrant credit-building), Cheese (serving Chinese immigrants), Till, Possible Finance (small-dollar lending), and Movocash. These additions brought the bank's total BaaS relationships to 21 active or in-progress, having vetted over 900 potential partners.
Coastal first began exploring BaaS in 2015, with significant momentum building in late 2020 as staffing and capabilities scaled. The bank also prepared for non-BaaS collaborations such as Google Plex for 2021-2022, leveraging its growing expertise and deposit base. Earlier partners included Aspiration (since 2017) and Ellevest.
The expansion highlights how community banks can become significant BaaS infrastructure providers by serving mission-driven and niche-market fintechs.
- Demonstrates how community banks can scale as BaaS sponsor banks by serving mission-driven and niche fintechs
- Growing demand from underserved-community-focused neobanks validates the BaaS model for financial inclusion use cases
- The vetting of 900+ potential partners signals an increasingly competitive market for sponsor bank relationships