OppFi

Overview

OppFi is a Chicago-based fintech lender that makes installment loans to nonprime borrowers at interest rates that regulators have put as high as 195–198% APR (D.C. OAG complaint; U.S. Senate). Founded in 2012 by Todd Schwartz as OppLoans — “Opportunity financial” is the longhand behind the current name — it went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 through a SPAC merger, trading under the ticker OPFI (Built In Chicago; PYMNTS). Its defining current chapter is a bid to buy its way into the banking system: a roughly $130 million agreement to acquire BNCCORP and its BNC National Bank, which would give it a national bank charter — a bid now opposed by 20 state attorneys general and two U.S. senators (PYMNTS).

From OppLoans to the NYSE

OppFi started in 2012 as a storefront lender and moved online in 2013, targeting nonprime consumers shut out of mainstream credit (D.C. OAG complaint). Around 2017 it shifted to a bank-partnership model, and in 2018 it began offering online installment loans through Utah-chartered FinWise Bank — a structure the D.C. attorney general would later characterize as “rent-a-bank,” alleging OppFi, not the bank, was the true lender with the predominant economic interest in the loans (D.C. OAG complaint). OppFi’s pitch was technology: AI-driven credit decisioning using alternative data rather than traditional FICO scores, plus budgeting-education modules bundled with the loans (PYMNTS).

The SPAC deal closed on July 20, 2021, when Opportunity Financial merged with FG New America Acquisition Corp.; shares began trading on the NYSE as OPFI the next day, with Jared Kaplan as CEO (PYMNTS). Founder Todd Schwartz, who had been chairman since 2015, reassumed the CEO role in February 2022 (Built In Chicago). As a public company, OppFi files its deal materials and financial disclosures with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (PYMNTS).

The D.C. enforcement record

Before the bank bid, OppFi’s most consequential regulatory episode was the 2021 D.C. case. Attorney General Karl Racine sued Opportunity Financial in April 2021, alleging its OppLoans carried interest rates up to 198% — versus D.C.’s 24% cap for licensed lenders — were marketed deceptively as affordable alternatives to payday loans, and were offered without a D.C. money-lender license (D.C. OAG complaint). The complaint alleged OppFi knew many borrowers could not afford the loans, with its underwriting model anticipating that up to a third of borrowers would default, and that it reported negative credit information more than three times as often as positive (D.C. OAG complaint). It also described the bank-partnership mechanics in detail: OppFi’s shell companies bought nearly all the loan receivables shortly after origination, while FinWise’s risk and reward were capped (D.C. OAG complaint).

The November 2021 consent order settled the case without any admission of wrongdoing: OppFi paid $250,000 to the District and reserved $1.5 million for pro-rata refunds to borrowers who paid interest above what a 24% APR would have charged, agreed never to offer D.C. consumers loans above 24% APR (or service such loans for other lenders), and waived more than $640,000 in past-due interest (D.C. OAG consent order).

The 2026 bank-charter bid and the backlash

On April 28, 2026, OppFi announced a definitive agreement to acquire BNCCORP, Inc. and its subsidiary BNC National Bank in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $130 million, planning to relocate the bank to Utah and become a bank holding company (U.S. Senate). OppFi’s own deal materials project at least $60 million in first-year synergies, rising to $90 million and then $115 million, with adjusted EPS accretion above 25% in 2027 — explicitly attributing the gains to “geographic expansion” and “funding optimization” from BNC’s roughly $1 billion in low-cost deposits (PYMNTS). American Banker reported the deal covered the holding company of the $1.1 billion-asset BNC National Bank and was expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 (American Banker).

The backlash has been coordinated and bipartisan in tone if not in party: in July 2026, a coalition of 20 state attorneys general wrote the Federal Reserve, OCC and FDIC urging them to reject both OppFi’s and Enova’s bank bids, arguing national-bank preemption would let the lenders charge 100%-plus rates “from coast to coast” and calling the arrangements “deliberate efforts to avoid state usury laws” (American Banker). In October 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen wrote directly to OppFi calling its model “built on predatory lending practices,” citing interest rates up to 195%, a charge-off rate exceeding 55%, and refinancing practices that extend borrowers’ debt — and urged the company to withdraw the application, as Enova did with its Grasshopper Bank bid in September (U.S. Senate; Banking Dive). OppFi pushed back, saying annualizing quarterly charge-offs inflates the figures and that the lifetime charge-off rate on its short-term loans has run 18% to 25%, with the average loan lasting about four months (Banking Dive).

What this profile does not claim

• It does not state the current regulatory status of the BNCCORP acquisition; no approval, denial, or conditions had been verified as of the research date.
• The “rent-a-bank” and “predatory” characterizations are allegations by the D.C. attorney general and the senators, not court findings, and are presented as such. OppFi’s rebuttals are included where reported.
• It does not state OppFi’s current loan volumes, profitability, or customer counts; no figures meeting the sourcing standard were found.
• It does not assert that the $130 million deal will or will not close; completion is conditioned on regulatory approval.