Selling fintech products responsibly to veterans

The federal government has long invested in supporting the millions of veterans who have previously served in the military—of which there are over 16.5 million today—from the GI Bill of 1944 to the PACT Act of 2022. But significant gaps in assistance clearly exist today, with a burning need to help veterans across several fronts, including financial stability, mental health support, and housing assistance.

Those gaps require greater focus from lawmakers—but, in the meantime, private-sector actors are looking to fill some of these gaps. Marketing and scaling these businesses hinges upon three key variables:

Engagement

As with other occupation- or identity-focused communities in the US, veterans shouldn’t be the subject of episodic and symbolic sales pitches. Instead of courting a veteran clientele in one-off periods during Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Veterans Day, fintechs should opt for ongoing engagement throughout the year.

Depending on the fintech and its mission, consistent engagement can involve partnering with local veterans’ groups, tying up with local governments and programs, and hiring veterans to serve as employees, feedback mechanisms, and candid spokespeople.

Employment

Fintechs looking to serve veterans will do best when they hire veterans to provide insight and connections into their communities. For example, Lending-as-a-Service platform StreetShares launched in 2014 with the intention of lending primarily to veterans, who make up more than 10% of small business owners in the US. StreetShares’s founder, Mark Rockefeller, who served in the Air Force between 2001 and 2010, saw veterans as a promising and socially contributive gateway for growth.

StreetShares was successfully acquired by MeridianLink in 2022—helping scale StreetShares’s ethos far beyond its initial footprint.

Compliance

A comprehensive regulatory framework protects veterans’ and active servicemembers’ financial wellbeing. For example, the Military Lending Act limits loans for servicemembers and dependents to 36%.

Other fintechs looking to serve those currently or formerly in the military may take the CFPB’s and other regulators’ actions as an encouragement to invest in military compliance-focused legal teams to avoid inadvertently crossing regulatory boundaries.