Many companies have suspiciously bank-like operations (origination, custody, lending) despite not being banks or financial technology companies. Please tweet at me and suggest more!

- Starbucks custodies $1.5-2B of Starbucks card value (“stored value card liability”) at any given time. Users deposit using the mobile app to get greater rewards when buying coffee. Deposited value is broken up into cohorts by geography/channel/vintage, and breakage, value that statistically won’t be used, is recognized as revenue quarterly. In 2025, Starbucks recognized $222.4M in breakage revenue.

- Verizon originates billions of dollars ($6B in 2025, $7B in 2026 as of August) worth of cell phone-secured loans yearly. They’re packaged up quarterly and syndicated as part of the Verizon Master Trust, paying out ~50bps above treasuries for a senior claim. thank you to Sam Catania.