Mos Act II — Banking for Students
We are in the midst of a historic wave of students going back to school, after the most significant disruption to the academic year since the Second World War. As millions of students across America head back to campuses this fall, most are faced with the uncomfortable question of how to pay for school, exacerbated by the financial challenges wrecked by the pandemic. I am proud to announce that today, Mos is launching a banking solution to help students meet these challenges.
Fintech has dramatically improved the financial lives of so many individuals and families around the world, making accessible products and services that have previously been confined to a select few. What remains unsolved, however, is the most protracted and important financial problem facing tens of millions of people in America, and millions more every year — the ever-growing $1.6 trillion in student loan debt.
I spent 10 years previously living in Europe, and from experience — if an 18 year old there asked a lender for a $200k loan, they would be laughed out of the room. Yet in the United States, we not only allow young adults to take on loans of this size, we subsidize it with taxpayer dollars and expect entering into life-changing debt as a rite of passage to achieve better opportunities (not to mention driving up the costs of education in the process). American higher education draws students from all over the globe and is a massive engine for social and economic mobility, but the opaque and unaffordable process of paying for it makes it inaccessible for many, and leaves millions of graduates starting their post-graduation lives on the back foot. As many of the most exciting advances being built by fintech companies transform payments, investing, financial infrastructure, and more, our industry has largely allowed this enduring crisis to persist.
When companies have, on occasion, ventured into the problems of education financing, it has typically been as a gimmick that does not meaningfully improve student financial outcomes, or worse — to offer financing options completely misaligned with a student’s best interests. Why isn’t navigating the bureaucracy of the financial aid system considered a financial service? Why do more financial services not help students pay for school in a more incentive-aligned way?
Nobody understands the problem of paying for college as deeply as we do at Mos. Since 2018, we have been working with students day in and day out to help them get the scholarships they deserve, so they can minimize their debt burdens. Over the course of the last 3 years, we created and discovered strategies to circumvent every possible barrier preventing students from accessing all the financial aid and scholarships they are eligible for and minimizing their student loan burdens — either by lowering their tuition due or by increasing the amounts of aid they received. In helping thousands of students get these results, we developed an acute understanding of the pain points in a student’s financial life, and all of the challenges both within paying for college and beyond.
Today, Mos is launching banking services for students — done right. With Mos, students will get a completely fee-free debit card and bank account that grants them access to the largest scholarship pool in America — with every single program researched and verified. We vetted tens of thousands of possible scholarships to eliminate any scam, pay-to-play program, or waste of time, ensuring students are able to be efficiently matched with every single program they are possibly eligible for — and able to share scholarships with friends they think would be good fits for them. With our proprietary technology that helps students negotiate with their aid offices, get their tuition recalculated, or reduce their Expected Family Contribution, students can truly rest assured that they are not taking on debt unnecessarily. Beyond that, every student will have access to their own Mos coach, a real human who has all of the strategies we have developed to navigate the financial aid system for the best results — strategies that have gotten our students 10s of thousands of dollars in free money for school. We are also launching the Mos Learn Center, to provide students with relevant and approachable financial education content. In short, if students use Mos, they are doing everything they can to get all that they are eligible for.
Mos is nothing without our Mosters. In building our banking solution, we have had students weigh in on everything from branding, to the debit card designs, to the features they want most from their banking services. To all current and future Mosters — Mos is there on your first day of adulthood to meet you with a debit card that helps you with your most pressing financial need — paying for school without drowning in student debt. We will continue to build products that support your financial journey every step of the way, from building credit, to making your first investments, to navigating insurance and mortgages and every other financial milestone in your future.
This is just the beginning — we are on a mission to tear down all financial barriers to opportunity, and we’re just getting started. To learn more, visit mos.com or reach out to press@mos.com for any inquiries. If this mission is compelling to you, join us.
