TabaPay plans to buy Denver’s Transact Bank, with a bid for an OCC charter and Fed access

TabaPay says it intends to acquire Denver-based Transact Bank in a deal backed by $155 million in financing led by FTV Capital. If approved, the move would give the money movement platform a banking charter through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and, by extension, access to Fed services that matter for payout-heavy and instant-payments businesses.

1. The transaction still needs approval from the Federal Reserve. TabaPay said Wednesday it expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, and once it does, Transact Bank will rebrand as TabaBank.
2. An OCC banking charter would let TabaPay access Fed services, including FedNow and ACH payments mechanisms, while operating under a federal regulatory framework rather than a patchwork of state money transmitter licenses. For PSPs, that is the real prize: fewer moving parts in the banking stack, at least on paper.
3. TabaPay said it counts 20 partner banks in the U.S. and Canada and is set to process more than $100 billion in payments this year. The company also said it ranks as the fifth-largest card-not-present processor in the U.S. by number of transactions and serves one-third of American households.
4. The platform enables instant payments and payouts across card and bank rails through a single application programming interface. TabaPay said FTV’s investment is meant to accelerate its product roadmap, including merchant liquidity solutions and further acquisitions, and to boost sponsorship capabilities for merchants, independent sales organizations, payment facilitators and other customers.
5. TabaPay also noted that FTV partner Robert Anderson will join its board. In a statement, CEO Rodney Robinson said the planned launch of TabaBank will bring payments and banking capabilities “under one roof,” while the company continues to work with its network of bank partners.

The deal follows TabaPay’s 2024 attempt to buy the assets of Synapse for $9.7 million after Synapse declared bankruptcy. Weeks later, TabaPay terminated that agreement “based on failure to meet the purchase agreement closing conditions,” after the required funding of the “for benefit of” accounts did not come through.