'Deregulating' the banking system makes fraud easier. Another Republican innovation! 😆
'I have no money': Thousands of Americans see their savings vanish in Synapse fintech crisis
For 15 years, former Texas schoolteacher Kayla Morris put every dollar she could save into a home for her growing family.
When she and her husband sold the house last year, they stowed away the proceeds, $282,153.87, in what they thought of as a safe place — an account at the savings startup Yotta held at a real bank.
Morris, like thousands of other customers, was snared in the collapse of a behind-the-scenes fintech firm called Synapse and has been locked out of her account for six months as of November. She held out hope that her money was still secure. Then she learned how much Evolve Bank & Trust, the lender where her funds were supposed to be held, was prepared to return to her.
“We were informed last Monday that Evolve was only going to pay us $500 out of that $280,000,” Morris said during a court hearing last week, her voice wavering. “It’s just devastating.”
The crisis started in May when a dispute between Synapse and Evolve Bank over customer balances boiled over and the fintech middleman turned off access to a key system used to process transactions. Synapse helped fintech startups like Yotta and Juno, which are not banks, offer checking accounts and debit cards by hooking them up with small lenders like Evolve.
In the immediate aftermath of Synapse’s bankruptcy, which happened after an exodus of its fintech clients, a court-appointed trustee found that up to $96 million of customer funds was missing.
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“When you tell people about this, it’s like, ‘There’s no way this can happen,’” Jacobs said. “A bank just robbed us. This is the first reverse bank robbery in the history of America.”
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Unlike meme stocks or crypto bets, in which the user naturally assumes some risk, most customers viewed funds held in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-backed accounts as the safest place to keep their money. People relied on accounts powered by Synapse for everyday expenses like buying groceries and paying rent, or for saving for major life events like home purchases or surgeries.
Several people CNBC interviewed said signing up seemed like a good bet since Yotta and other fintechs advertised that deposits were FDIC-insured through Evolve.
“We were assured that this was just a savings account,” Morris said during last week’s hearing. “We are not risk-takers, we’re not gamblers.”
A Synapse contract that customers received after signing up for checking accounts stated that user money was insured by the FDIC for up to $250,000, according to a version seen by CNBC.
“According to the FDIC, no depositor has ever lost a penny of FDIC-insured funds,” the 26 page contract states.
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In June, the FDIC made it clear that its insurance fund doesn’t cover the failure of nonbanks like Synapse, and that in the event of such a firm’s failure, recovering funds through the courts wasn’t guaranteed.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/no-money-thousands-americans-see-223556135.html
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@spruce112358 said😂 you are pitiful.
Deregulation. 😀
A middle man, synapse lied to these people claiming their deposits were fdic insured.
@Mott-The-Hoople saidWhich was easy. Because of deregulation. 😆
😂 you are pitiful.
A middle man, synapse lied to these people claiming their deposits were fdic insured.
@Mott-The-Hoople saidAs they should have been, but that would have ben "bureaucracy"...
😂 you are pitiful.
A middle man, synapse lied to these people claiming their deposits were fdic insured.
In contrast, here is another victory for socialism, regulation, the FBI and the Our Great Federal Government! Woot! Woot! 😆
WICHITA, KANSAS (AP) — Sobs of relief broke out in a federal courtroom in Kansas on Monday as dozens of people whose life savings had been embezzled by a bank CEO learned that federal law enforcement had recovered their money.
Hanes' Heartland Tri-State Bank, drained of cash, was shut down by federal regulators and sold to another financial institution. Customers’ savings and checking accounts amounting to $47.1 million were insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which paid off their losses.
But there were still 30 shareholders of the community-owned rural bank Hanes helped found — including his close family friends and neighbors — who thought they lost $8.3 million in investments: well-planned retirements were upended, funds for long-term eldercare gone, education funds and bequests for children and grandchildren zeroed out.
On Monday the shareholders stood to cheer federal Judge John W. Broomes in Wichita after he told them, one at a time, that they’d be paid back in full. The FBI recovered the funds from a cryptocurrency account held by Tether Ltd.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/courtroom-relief-feds-recover-funds-002605686.html