Cross River is an American

financial services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

organization that provides technology infrastructure to fintech and technology companies. Based in

Fort Lee, New Jersey Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop the Palisades. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 40,191. As of the 2010 U.S. census, th ...

, Cross River services its clients with embedded payments, cards, lending, and cryptocurrency solutions, and is an FDIC member. Cross River is noted for its embrace of the trend in the financial services sector towards

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...

-based payment platform services.

History

Cross River Bank was founded in 2008 by French-born entrepreneur Gilles Gade as a community bank. In 2010, Cross River entered into its first tech partnership. In October 2015, Cross River Bank announced a $100 million

securitization Securitization is the financial practice of pooling various types of contractual debt such as residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, auto loans or credit card debt obligations (or other non-debt assets which generate receivables) and selling ...

with Marlette funding. As of 2020, Cross River counts more than a dozen lending partners including Affirm, Rocketloans and Upstart. In 2019, Cross River received a Grow NJ grant from the

New Jersey Economic Development Authority The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) is an independent government entity in the U.S. state of New Jersey dedicated to broadening and expanding the state's economic base. The EDA creates public-private partnerships to provide access ...

(NJEDA) to expand its operations, leading to the purchase of new office space in Fort Lee and a commitment to hire 250 new employees. The same year, Cross River announced the acquisition of Seed, a

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

-based firm specializing in small business banking. Fort Lee Cross River Building

The deal included the retention of Seed employees and senior leadership and a plan for Cross River to maintain office space in Portland and San Francisco, expanding the firm's small business banking and technology services and providing its first presence on the West Coast. Cross River officially opened its new corporate headquarters in April 2021. The 70,000 square-foot building in Fort Lee, acquired with the assistance of the 2019 Grow NJ grant, was anticipated to accommodate the firm’s expanding workforce, which by this point had increased to some 500 employees. At the grand opening ceremony, New Jersey Governor

Phil Murphy Philip Dunton Murphy (born August 16, 1957) is an American financier, diplomat, and politician serving as the 56th governor of New Jersey since January 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the United States ambassador to Germa ...

credited Cross River’s continued presence in the state with helping “bring ew Jerseyonce again to the forefront of the innovation economy.”

Operations

The bank focuses on traditional community banking activities, including taking deposits and making loans, and technology services. The bank originates loans for marketplace lenders and processes payments, and is known for its roster of clients in emerging

fintech Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are r ...

sectors. As of 2020, the bank has assets of approximately $9.9 billion and maintains 300 employees at its branch office and corporate headquarters in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

.Perry, J. (19 March 2020). During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the bank was one of the nation's top lenders under the

CARES Act The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, is a $2.2trillion Stimulus (economics), economic stimulus bill passed by the 116th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27, 2 ...

Paycheck Protection Program The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a $953-billion business loan program established by the United States federal government during the Donald Trump administration in 2020 through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES A ...

, originating $6.5 billion in loans to more than 198,000 American small businesses, the third largest number of total loans by financial institution.Conley, S. (23 June 2020) Cross River has received investments from a number of notable private equity and venture capital firms. On November 1, 2016 Cross River Bank announced it had completed a $28 million growth-equity investment led by investment firm

Battery Ventures Battery Ventures is an American technology-focused investment firm. Founded in 1983, the firm makes venture-capital and private-equity investments in markets across the globe from offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Israel and Lon ...

, with participation from

Andreessen Horowitz Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Andreessen ...

and Ribbit Capital. Private equity firm KKR & Co. Inc. led a $100 million investment in the bank, including $75 million of its own capital, in 2018. In 2020, the bank, through its parent company, issued $106 million in

private placement Private placement (or non-public offering) is a funding round of securities which are sold not through a public offering, but rather through a private offering, mostly to a small number of chosen investors. Generally, these investors include friend ...

subordinated bonds. Cross River established its own venture capital arm, Cross River Digital Ventures, in 2021 to invest in start-ups operating in sectors including lending, payments, investing and fintech.

Services

Cross River offers a number of banking-as-a-service products. In 2019, the bank announced that it was joining

The Clearing House The Clearing House is a banking association and payments company owned by the largest commercial banks in the United States. The Clearing House is the parent organization of The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C., which owns and operates core ...

's real-time payments system, as well as partnering with Stripe. Cross River also offers marketplace lending services such as compliance, payments, credit and underwriting, and balance sheet capacity. Cross River partners with

Coinbase Coinbase Global, Inc., branded Coinbase, is an American publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Coinbase is a distributed company; all employees operate via remote work and the company lacks a physical headquar ...

to provide cryptocurrency solutions, and has developed APIs to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions. In addition to its headquarters, Cross River has a branch in

Teaneck, New Jersey Teaneck () is a Township (New Jersey), township in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States census, 2010 U.S. census, th ...

Public relations

Cross River maintains partnerships with local elected officials and community-based organizations to provide charity and financial literacy services. In 2019, the bank started its Cross River Financial Literacy Initiative, working in collaboration with New Jersey-area public schools and members of the

New Jersey Legislature The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and the ...

. In March 2020, the bank announced that this initiative would partner with

Operation HOPE, Inc. Operation HOPE, Inc., is an American non-profit organization providing financial literacy empowerment and economic education to youth and adults. The mission of this organization is providing everybody with enterprise work and the programs carried ...

to provide virtual financial literacy programming in response to the

.Bader, E. (31 March 2020)

References

{{Reflist Banks established in 2008 Privately held companies of the United States Banks based in New Jersey 2008 establishments in New Jersey Fort Lee, New Jersey Companies based in Bergen County, New Jersey