Partner bank — A partner bank is an FDIC-insured chartered bank that holds customer deposits and issues debit cards on behalf of a non-bank fintech, providing the regulated infrastructure the fintech itself does not have.
Almost every US neobank operates this way: the user-facing app is the fintech's product, but the actual deposits sit at one or more partner banks (the legal account holders are the fintech's customers, with FDIC pass-through coverage).
In 2026 the major partner banks for fintech rails include Lead Bank, Column N.A., Stride Bank, Evolve Bank & Trust, Cross River Bank, and several mid-sized regionals.
Kronos's partner-bank arrangement is operated through Bridge.xyz, which manages the deposit-holding bank, ACH rails, and FDIC pass-through paperwork. Card issuance is via a separate partner currently being on-boarded — copy on the public site refers generically to "our partner bank" rather than naming a specific issuer until that goes live.
Operating a chartered bank is a multi-year, multi-million-dollar regulatory project. The partner-bank model lets fintechs ship product faster while still giving customers full FDIC coverage.