Schwaner & Co. provides partnership development for neobanks and digital banks, from target selection and executive outreach through negotiation and launch coordination. We help you reach new account holders through employers and payroll providers, consumer brands and membership organizations, software platforms and marketplaces, and the product partners that make your account the one people get paid into.
Every engagement is run by a senior partnerships executive, supported by a team that handles research, materials and follow-up.
Neobank partnership consulting built around primary accounts
You already know the math. A member who moves their paycheck to you is worth several times a member who downloads the app and loads twenty dollars. Paid acquisition finds the second kind in volume. Partnerships are the most reliable way we know to find the first kind, because the partner already has the relationship and the moment, a new job, a new membership, a new storefront, a first paycheck.
Our neobank partnership consulting starts with the partner's reason to offer your account and the customer's reason to switch. Then we work out which companies reach the right people, what the arrangement looks like, how enrollment and direct deposit would flow and whether the deposits justify the integration and the partner's share.
For a consumer neobank, the goal is usually direct deposit through employers and payroll. For a teen and family app, it is parents, reached through schools, youth programs and the brands families already use. For an SMB banking platform, it is the accounting, commerce and payroll software where a business already runs its money. For a sponsor bank, it is a pipeline of well-run fintech programs. We build the approach around your product, your economics and the growth number you have to hit.
What is happening in digital banking right now
Three things are shaping how neobanks grow in 2026, and all three point toward partnerships.
Profitability
The leaders are profitable, and they got there on direct deposit. Chime reported $670 million in second-quarter revenue, up 27%, with 10.4 million active members and a second consecutive quarter of positive net income. Its new Prime tier, for members with $3,000 or more in monthly direct deposits, produces more than double the revenue per member of the average account. Dave reported $170.8 million in quarterly revenue, up 30%, with 3.08 million monthly transacting members and a $19 customer acquisition cost held flat for a year. The lesson for everyone else is plain. The account that receives the paycheck wins, and the cost of getting there decides whether the business works. [2, 3]
The employer channel
The employer channel is now a named growth line. Chime reports its employer business as a distinct unit and signed two employer partners in the second quarter that together employ more than 350,000 people in the United States. When the largest player treats employers as a channel with its own name, it is a signal to every other neobank that payroll and HR are where primary accounts are decided. [2]
Sponsor banks
Sponsor banks got more careful, and more expensive. After the Synapse failure in 2024, the FDIC proposed custodial account recordkeeping rules and the banking agencies had already tightened third-party risk expectations. Sponsor banks now review fintech programs more closely and some have trimmed their partner lists. For a neobank, that raises the value of every partnership that brings deposits without adding program risk. For a sponsor bank, it raises the value of a pipeline of programs that will pass review. [4, 5]
Put those together and the picture is simple. Growth is moving from buying accounts one at a time to being placed where people get paid, join, shop and run their businesses. More growth runs through partnerships now, and the neobanks that build that capability will compound.
Where neobanks and digital banks can find distribution
Digital banks reach customers in different ways. These are examples of partner categories we would evaluate based on your product, market and operating capabilities.
| Digital banking segment | Potential distribution partners | What we would evaluate |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer neobanks | Employers and staffing agencies, payroll and HR platforms, gig and creator platforms, retailers, membership organizations, personal finance apps and comparison sites | Direct deposit enrollment, the partner's incentive to promote the account and the cost per funded primary account against paid channels |
| Teen and family banking | Schools and youth sports organizations, family-focused consumer brands, parenting platforms, employers offering family benefits and personal finance apps | Parent decision path, trust and safety requirements, and whether the partner can reach families at the moment a teen gets a first card |
| SMB banking platforms | Accounting and bookkeeping software, ecommerce and marketplace platforms, payroll providers, formation and registered agent services, vertical software and payment processors | Where the business already runs its money, the integration path and who owns onboarding and support |
| Sponsor and partner banks | Fintech programs seeking a bank partner, banking as a service providers and the advisors, law firms and investors who see programs early | Program quality, compliance readiness, deposit and interchange economics and the bank's capacity to onboard |
| Credit building and underserved segments | Employers with large hourly workforces, community organizations, rent reporting and bill payment platforms, immigrant and remittance services | Fit between the partner's audience and your product, enrollment friction and the partner's reason to promote |
Partnership models for neobank growth
Employer and payroll partnerships
Direct deposit is the whole game, and employers decide where it goes on day one. An employer, staffing agency or payroll platform can offer your account during onboarding, when the new hire is filling in a direct deposit form anyway. The employer's interest is usually a financial wellness benefit it can offer at no cost, faster pay for hourly workers and fewer paper checks.
We identify employers and payroll partners whose workforce fits your product, build the case for HR and benefits leaders, and work through enrollment, data sharing and co-marketing. Your product and compliance teams own the account opening and disclosure flow. We keep the commercial side moving until the program is live and the first paychecks land.
Co-brand, affinity and white label banking partnerships
A consumer brand, retailer, membership organization or creator can offer a version of your account to its own audience, under its brand or alongside it. The partner's interest is loyalty, a new revenue line and a reason for its customers to come back daily. This is where white label banking and affinity banking requests usually start, and it works in both directions. You can be the bank behind a brand, or you can be the brand looking for an audience.
We evaluate audience size and fit, the partner's marketing commitment, the revenue share and the responsibilities each side carries for marketing, servicing and compliance. A co-brand program needs clear ownership of the customer relationship and the sponsor bank's approval before the commercial conversation can close.
Embedded banking and platform partnerships
Embedded banking places your account inside another company's product. A gig platform offers drivers an account that receives earnings instantly. An ecommerce platform offers sellers a business account where sales settle. A payroll system offers employees an account at setup. The customer opens the account where they already are, and the platform earns revenue from a product it did not have to build.
We identify platforms where your account solves a specific problem and where the platform has a commercial reason to offer it. The discussions address placement, revenue sharing, customer ownership, data access and launch requirements. Your product, engineering and compliance teams assess the integration while we coordinate the commercial work.
Product partnerships that deepen the account
Not every partnership is about new members. Some are about making the account you already have the primary one. Investing, insurance, credit building, rewards, early pay and bill payment partners give members more reasons to move their money to you and keep it there. The partner gets distribution to an engaged member base, and you get revenue per member without building the product.
We evaluate which product categories your members will actually use, which partners can deliver them under your brand and what the economics look like after the partner's share. Your product team decides what goes in the app. We find and negotiate the partner.
Program pipeline for sponsor banks
If you are the bank underneath the fintechs, your growth problem is different. You need a pipeline of programs that will pass your risk review and bring deposits worth the oversight. We source fintech programs through our relationships with founders, investors and advisors, qualify them against your program criteria and bring you the ones worth a conversation. Your compliance and risk teams run the review. We keep the pipeline full.
What makes a neobank partnership worth pursuing
A partner's audience is only a starting point. We look at how many of those people would open an account, how many would fund it, how many would move their paycheck and whether the deposits and interchange justify the integration and the partner's share.
- Audience fit. Which customers can the partner actually reach, and how many of them look like your best members?
- The moment. Does the partner meet the customer at a moment when switching accounts is natural, a new job, a new membership, a new business?
- Conversion. What moves a customer from seeing the offer to an opened, funded account with direct deposit?
- Economics. What is the cost per funded primary account after the partner's share, and how does it compare with your paid channels?
- Compliance path. What does your sponsor bank need to approve, and can both sides clear it in a reasonable time?
- Partner commitment. Who owns the opportunity on each side, and can both organizations commit the people and approvals needed to launch?
For example, a retailer with millions of customers may have limited near-term potential if its shoppers rarely switch banks and its marketing team will not promote the offer. A staffing agency placing fifty thousand hourly workers a year could deserve priority, because every placement is a direct deposit decision.
Our approach to partner selection is explained further in how we identify strategic partners.
How we develop your neobank partnership pipeline
Identify the right targets
We agree on the product, the member segment, the growth objective and the partner categories to pursue. Research then narrows the opportunity to specific companies, relevant decision-makers and a clear partnership rationale. You can see why each target belongs on the list and which assumptions still need to be tested.
Engage the decision-makers
We open executive conversations with an explanation of why the partnership could matter to that company and what revenue or employee benefit it could produce. Existing relationships help where there is relevant overlap; we also develop new conversations through targeted outreach. Follow-up addresses the partner's questions and keeps the next decision clear.
Qualify the opportunity
Discovery tests audience fit, conversion assumptions, economics, sponsor bank requirements and the partner's willingness to act. We establish who needs to be involved and what each side needs to evaluate. Every active opportunity has a next step, an owner on each side and a target date for the next decision.
Scope and negotiate the agreement
We develop the commercial proposal and lead negotiations around the agreed partnership model. Topics may include revenue sharing or bounties, attribution, customer ownership, exclusivity, marketing commitments, minimum volumes and responsibilities for launch, servicing and support. We coordinate with your legal, compliance, bank partner and product leads so decisions and outstanding requirements stay visible.
Coordinate launch and handover
Once an agreement is signed, we coordinate the commercial work needed to prepare the partnership for launch. That includes agreed responsibilities, supporting materials, launch milestones and the handover of contacts and deal documents. Your teams retain responsibility for technical implementation and approvals. Ongoing partner management stays with your team unless separately scoped.
Weekly pipeline reviews distinguish outreach, qualified opportunities, proposals, signed agreements and launched partners. Once a partner is live, reporting should separately show accounts opened, accounts funded, direct deposit enrollments and revenue.
See our business development consulting services for the broader deliverables and reporting.
Senior partnership leadership and execution
Every engagement is run by a senior partnerships executive who leads partner strategy, executive conversations and commercial negotiations. That ownership continues through agreement and launch coordination. Kevin Schwaner is the person on every call.
We have 200+ enterprise relationships across insurance, banking, lending, automotive and consumer platforms, built over nearly a decade, and have driven over $200M in partnership revenue for the companies our team members have worked for. One of them says more about how we work than any process diagram.
It was a partnership with a top-five property and casualty carrier. There was no introduction and no existing relationship. Our team reached 173 people across that organization before the right conversation started, and that conversation became a signed partnership. That is what outreach at scale with a senior person on every reply looks like.
A supporting team handles research, materials, scheduling and follow-up. Your team receives regular pipeline updates with clear next steps, outstanding decisions and an owner for each opportunity. This engagement fits a digital bank with a clear product, a defined growth number and internal capacity to evaluate and launch partnerships. We can lead a specific channel, employers for example, alongside your business development team. If you need senior ownership across a broader mandate, our fractional head of partnerships service explains that structure.
Neobank partnership development FAQs
What is a neobank partnership?
A neobank partnership is a commercial relationship in which another company, such as an employer, a consumer brand, a software platform or a product provider, offers a digital bank's account or services to its own customers, employees or users. The partner supplies the audience and the moment. The neobank supplies the account, the sponsor bank relationship and the servicing. Common forms are employer direct deposit programs, co-branded or white label accounts, embedded banking inside a platform and in-app product partnerships.
What is embedded banking?
Embedded banking is the placement of a bank account, card or payment capability inside another company's product, such as an earnings account inside a gig platform or a business account inside ecommerce software. The platform owns the customer experience. The bank or neobank, with its sponsor bank, holds the deposits and runs the account. From the neobank's side, it is a distribution partnership. From the platform's side, it is a new product and a new revenue line.
Can you help us build an employer or payroll channel?
Yes. We identify employers, staffing agencies and payroll platforms whose workforce fits your product, open conversations with HR, benefits and payroll leaders, and negotiate the enrollment, co-marketing and economics. Your team owns account opening, disclosures and the sponsor bank approval. The channel is measured in direct deposit enrollments, not downloads.
Do you work with sponsor banks?
Yes, in two ways. For a neobank, we coordinate the commercial conversation around what your sponsor bank needs to approve so a partnership does not stall at review. For a sponsor bank, we source and qualify fintech programs that fit your criteria and bring you a pipeline worth reviewing. We do not arrange charters or run compliance reviews; your risk and compliance teams lead those.
Can you work alongside our internal growth or business development team?
Yes. We can own a defined channel or partner category while your team manages other priorities. We agree on account ownership, decision authority and reporting at the start so both teams know who leads each relationship and when product, compliance or bank partner specialists should participate.
How long does it take to launch a neobank partnership?
Timing depends on the model, the partner's priorities, technical work and sponsor bank approval. Employer and affinity programs built on your existing onboarding move faster than embedded integrations or white label programs. We establish milestones after discovery and track progress against them. A signed agreement, a launched partner and a funded account with direct deposit are separate milestones; the timeline should make each one clear.
How are neobank partnership engagements priced?
Schwaner & Co. works on a monthly retainer plus a performance fee on closed partnerships. The scope reflects the products, partner categories and work involved. We agree on responsibilities, commercial terms and how a closed partnership is defined before the engagement begins.
Discuss your neobank partnership goals
Tell us about your account, the members you want to win and the growth number partnerships need to support. We will prepare an initial map of eight to ten potential partners for one channel and use a 20-minute conversation to discuss where there may be a fit.