Upgrade has applied for an industrial loan company charter with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Nevada Financial Institutions Division. Virginia Varela, proposed CEO of Upgrade Bank, said the bank would advance Upgrade's mission of bringing responsible and affordable credit to consumers.
Varela spent more than two decades with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and another two years as a senior bank examiner with the Federal Reserve. She was CEO of Golden Pacific Bank when SoFi bought the lender, and she left SoFi in July 2025 for Upgrade.
Upgrade counts Cross River and Celtic Bank as partners on loans, credit lines and banking services. An ILC charter would make Upgrade less dependent on those relationships.
FDIC Chair Travis Hill last year touted the ILC charter as one of a handful of ways to boost the establishment of new banks. Rent fintech Flex and BNPL juggernaut Klarna applied for ILC charters in July.