SoFi Partners With Banks to Offer Additional FDIC Insurance

SoFi Technologies is now offering access to additional FDIC insurance.

With the new SoFi FDIC Insurance Network, SoFi has partnered with multiple banks to offer SoFi Checking and Savings members up to $2 million of FDIC insurance on their deposits, the digital personal finance company said in a Wednesday (March 22) press release.

“By offering access to up to $2 million in FDIC insurance, we are making sure our members have peace of mind about their money at SoFi,” SoFi CEO Anthony Noto said in the release. “We know the last few weeks have been unnerving for many consumers, and we hope this helps.”

The SoFi FDIC Insurance Network provides SoFi members with the benefits of multiple accounts — by offering the enhanced insurance beyond the industry standard of $250,000 per account — while still providing uninterrupted access to all their funds within SoFi Checking and Savings, according to the press release.

It will do so by enabling SoFi to place members’ deposits that are above the limit for standard insurance coverage with FDIC-insured partner banks, the release said.

The benefit is now available to new SoFi members and will be rolled out to existing members over the next week, allowing them to opt in through the SoFi app or website, per the release.

“We will keep pushing ourselves to drive innovation to better meet our members’ needs and ensure they have complete trust in us,” Noto said in the release.

The launch of this benefit comes two days after it was reported that federal officials are examining ways to expand deposit protections to halt a possible financial meltdown.

Staff members at the Treasury Department are studying whether regulators have the authority to temporarily insure deposits above the traditional $250,000 limit without Congressional approval, Bloomberg News reported Monday (March 20).

The $250,000 deposit “cap” on insured funds does not work for business in the U.S., and there will be a real policy debate about what to do about that going forward, Amias Gerety, partner at FinTech VC firm QED Investors, told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview posted Monday (March 20).

“That’s a real policy challenge,” Gerety said at the time.