Why Enova Wants a Bank Charter, Not Just Cheap Deposits with CEO Steve Cunningham

Enova International has spent two decades using machine learning underwriting to serve consumers and small businesses who sit outside prime bank criteria, and its pending $369 million acquisition of Grasshopper Bank would give it a national charter for the first time. Steve Cunningham became CEO in January 2026 after nearly a decade as the company's CFO, following earlier stops as a bank regulator at the FDIC and as chief risk officer at Discover. He joins the show to explain what a fully digital lender looks for in a nonprime borrower, why credit quality looks solid in his portfolio right now, and how he's answering the senators and state attorneys general who want regulators to block the Grasshopper deal.What We CoveredSteve's path from FDIC regulator to Capital One, Harley-Davidson, and DiscoverMoving from the CFO chair to the CEO chair six months inEnova's brand portfolio: CashNet, NetCredit, and OnDeckUnderwriting nonprime and near-prime consumers versus underwriting small businessesThe lift Enova's proprietary models get over a plain FICO or VantageScoreWhy all their products use different underwriting modelsWhat Enova's weekly vintage data shows about the health of the consumerWhy gas prices matter less to consumer spending than headlines suggestHow Enova is using generative and agentic AI across the businessThe real thesis behind the Grasshopper Bank acquisition (see my podcast with CEO Mike Butler)Steve's response to the senators and state attorneys general opposing the dealWhat banking-as-a-service adds to Enova's roadmapWhere Enova wants to be by 2030Key TakeawaysEnova's NetCredit yields and losses aren't outliers when benchmarked against what banks themselves report to the FDIC each quarter, Cunningham argues, pushing back on the "predatory" framing critics apply to the company.The Grasshopper deal is primarily about simplifying a patchwork of direct state licenses and bank partnership arrangements, not chasing cheap deposits, though the deposit base is a welcome bonus.Because Enova's consumer loans repay every two weeks or faster, the company sees shifts in borrower behavior in its own vintage data well before those shifts show up in macro statistics.Small business underwriting at Enova is built around the health of roughly 900 different industry codes rather than a borrower's personal credit, making it a fundamentally different discipline than consumer underwriting.About Steve CunninghamSteve Cunningham is CEO of Enova International, a role he took on in January 2026 after nearly a decade as the company's CFO. He previously served as chief risk officer and treasurer at Discover, CFO of Harley-Davidson Financial Services, held senior finance roles at Capital One, and began his career as a bank regulator at the FDIC.Connect with Fintech One-on-One:Tweet me @PeterRentonConnect with me on LinkedInFind previous Fintech One-on-One episodes