Rajib Das and Alok Prasad have spent decades successfully working in the financial industry, but they saw many consumers get left behind by traditional banks or unable to access them at all.
“If you walk into a bank branch, it is very much designed for sales,” Das told Orlando Inno. “It is designed to gather assets. Consumers who we are trying to serve feel left behind. The consumers walk into a bank branch, they see investment offerings, and the consumers don't even have savings.”
That’s why this year they launched CashRepublic Holdings Inc. to offer an easy-to-use and reliable way to cash checks for the 28% of Americans who do not have reliable access to banking services, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. At the same time, Orlando-based CashRepublic offers its services at lower rates than many check-cashing services already in the market.
The company on July 20 announced the opening of its first store on Orange Blossom Trail. It is just the start for Cash Republic, which plans to open four more stores and hire dozens of people before the end of the year, Prasad told Orlando Inno.
How it works
The company is led by Prasad, CEO, and Das, board chairman, a pair of longtime finance and banking leaders who have known each other for more than 30 years. Das is the founder and CEO of Orlando-based private equity investment firm Lexington Park Group, the sole investor behind CashRepublic, while Prasad previously was president of multibillion-dollar London-based fintech company OakNorth. Both Das and Prasad previously worked at multiple New York-based finance firms, including investment bank giant Merrill Lynch.
Through an online platform and brick-and-mortar stores, CashRepublic cashes checks, wires money and provides other financial services for individuals and small businesses. For checks worth $1,000 or less, the company charges flat fees based on the value of the check. For checks worth more than $1,000, Cash Republic charges a 2% fee.
Check-cashing services typically charge between 1-10% of a check’s value, according to personal finance company NerdWallet. CashRepublic’s flat fees equate to between 0.98-2.5% of the value of a check worth more than $200, putting the company’s fees on the lower end of that spectrum.
“That's a huge amount of money going back to our customer’s pocket,” Das said.
In 2019, the FDIC found there were 7.1 million U.S. households in which no one had a savings or checking account at bank or credit union. A lack of funds was the primary reason, the federal agency reported. "About half of unbanked households cited, 'Don’t have enough money to meet minimum balance requirements' as a reason for not having an account — the most cited reason."
Jobs and stores in the works
The founders launched the company in Orlando because of their familiarity with the market, anticipated local demand for CashRepublic’s services and the region’s strong talent pool, Prasad and Das said.
The company employs 10 people, with plans to hire 20 to 25 employees before the end of the year. CashRepublic will hire retail workers to staff its stores, as well as technology, marketing and finance employees.
That hiring is necessitated by the company’s “aggressive” plan to add four stores in the next six months, Prasad added. CashRepublic is not limiting itself to Orlando. The company targets Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville as expansion markets.
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