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Fintech Upgrade applies for ILC charter

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Fintech Upgrade applies for ILC charter

The decade-old credit-card startup named a SoFi alum and longtime regulator as CEO of its proposed bank.

Upgrade has applied for an industrial loan company charter with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Nevada Financial Institutions Division, the fintech announced Monday.

“We are excited at the prospect of establishing a new bank that will advance Upgrade’s mission of bringing responsible and affordable credit to consumers,” Virginia Varela, proposed CEO of Upgrade Bank, said in a statement.

Varela brings more than 40 years of experience in the banking sector – first, as a regulator. She 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, before specializing in bank turnarounds after the 2007-08 financial crisis, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Varela was CEO of Sacramento, California-based Golden Pacific Bank when SoFi bought the lender. She became head of SoFi’s community banking unit but left in July 2025 for Upgrade, where she is head of banking strategy.

Varela will serve on Upgrade Bank’s board alongside Upgrade co-founder and CFO Jeffrey Bogan, the company said. Raymond Specht, onetime CEO of Toyota Financial Savings Bank, will serve as an independent director on the board.

Upgrade launched roughly a decade ago as a credit-card startup but gradually expanded to encompass personal loans, mobile banking , auto financing and buy now, pay later . 5 million customers, it said.



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