Checkout.com is approved for Georgia limited bank charter | PaymentsSource

• Key insight: Checkout.com’s Georgia MALPB charter enables direct U.S. merchant-acquiring operations.
• Expert quote: Klaros Group’s Michele Alt says that state alternative charters help solve the fintech–bank charter mismatch.
• Forward look: Expect full charter operations targeted for 2026, accelerating Checkout.com’s U.S. market entry.
  Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

Checkout.com is one step closer to operating in the U.S. as a chartered institution.

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The London-based payments processor announced on Monday that its October 2025 application for a merchant acquirer limited purpose bank, or MALPB, charter in Georgia has been approved.

“With our MALPB charter now approved, the ‘definitive catalyst’ we identified in October is officially activated,” said Jordan Reynolds, MALPB CEO and head of North American banking for Checkout.com, in a statement. 

The charter approval is the latest step in the payment company’s North American expansion, according to Reynolds, anchored by new offices in Atlanta. Approval for the MALPB charter requires “employing no fewer than 50 employees located in Georgia devoted to merchant acquiring activities within one year of beginning operations,” according to official charter guidelines.

“Our focus is now on scaling our infrastructure and building up talent in Atlanta and the U.S. to meet the rigorous conditions of our approval,” he said. “We are on track toward full charter banking operations in 2026, doubling down on our commitment to provide U.S. enterprise merchants with the performance and reliability they demand.”

Michele Alt, partner and co-founder of the legal firm Klaros Group, told American Banker that various state alternative banking charters are “trying to solve what is a square peg-round hole problem with the existing charters when it comes to fintech.

“A lot of fintechs have limited business models, more on one side of the balance sheet than the other side,” she said. “A traditional bank charter may be overkill for their needs.”

In 2012, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance introduced its MALPB for payment card merchant processors. 

An MALPB charter would allow Checkout.com to operate as its own merchant acquirer within the United States. A merchant acquirer is a financial institution that operates as a link between a business, payment processor and card issuing bank involved in a transaction.

This move would reduce the need for bank partners to provide connections to U.S. payment networks for Checkout.com’s clients. Other payments processing competitors, such as Fiserv and Stripe, have acquired the Georgia MALPB charter in recent years.

According to Alt, the charter is designed for nonbank payment processors to obtain and maintain payment card network memberships, underwrite merchants to accept payment card transactions, provide access to card networks for customers and/or affiliates, and facilitate the clearing and settlement of payment card transactions with issuing banks on behalf of merchants.

However, an MALPB-chartered company does not make loans and can only take deposits from its corporate parent. The chartered institution would also not be federally insured by the FDIC.

The Federal Reserve considers “institutions that are not federally insured and not subject to prudential supervision by a federal banking agency at the institution or holding company level” as Tier 3 institutions in Fed master accounts. Tier 3 institutions are subject to higher levels of scrutiny for Fed account access.

The United States has become Checkout.com’s fastest-growing region over the past few years, according to the company, with U.S. transaction volumes growing more than 80% in 2024 and nearly 70% in 2025. Globally, the company processed around $300 billion in e-commerce volume during the year through enterprise clients such as Uber, eBay and Klarna.