Sezzle will apply to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national bank charter rather than the industrial loan company license it had planned on, according to Justin Bachman at Payments Dive. CEO Charlie Youakim said new BNPL laws in New York, Illinois, and Oregon drove the switch, along with objections that banks and consumer groups have raised against the ILC route, and that he’s fine with federal rules but not with politics that shift state to state. Sezzle told investors it will file by the end of September, with sign-off from the OCC, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC expected to take 12 to 18 months. A national charter would let Sezzle export its rates and product terms into every state without states being able to challenge them, TD Cowen analyst Hoang Nguyen said.
