IntraFi made the top of American Banker's 2026 Best Places to Work in Fintech list because of its mission-driven culture, investment in family-supporting benefits and an emphasis on flexibility.
The fintech, founded in 2002 in Arlington, Virginia, by former federal banking regulators to increase the security of large deposits, was the first to create a system for reciprocal deposits so banks could provide additional deposit insurance to their customers beyond the standard $250,000 FDIC limit, according to the company.
"Our mission is to help keep money in the communities where it is generated, as opposed to flowing out to the coasts and being allocated from the 39th floor," CEO Mark Jacobsen told American Banker. "We want money to stay in community banks.
"We take great pride in knowing that we've kept hundreds of billions of dollars outstanding today in community banks that otherwise wouldn't be there," he continued. "We think it's important for the heartland that small communities thrive."
A Wisconsin native himself, Jacobsen noted that many of IntraFi's employees hail from smaller towns and that the company's mission extends beyond the immediate impact of the fintech's services to community banks.
"I actually think it's important in helping breach some of the political divides, perhaps just on the margins," he said. "There is a difference between red America and blue America, and many times it's access to capital and funding. To the extent that we can make wealth available to all, I think, the better we are for our democracy."
Jacobsen works toward establishing a culture of transparency by personally writing monthly CEO reports for all IntraFi employees.
"It's been 24 years of 20-plus single-space pages a month that go through every element of what we do, from our finances to performance to budget," he said. "We want everyone to feel like this is their company. We trust them with all of our sensitive corporate information, and they have a better sense as to what the value of their stake in the company is worth. As we prosper, they prosper." All IntraFi employees are offered an equity stake in the company after one year of employment.
To foster morale and community-building within the company, IntraFi hosts team-building events throughout the year (with some including family members) such as seasonal and birthday celebrations, an annual family picnic, a 5K charity event and complimentary tickets for events at Capital One Arena and Northwest Stadium.
IntraFi also provides employees with an extensive array of non-salary benefits such as generous paid time off, sabbaticals granted upon achieving work anniversaries, adoption assistance as part of its family benefits package and access to expert medical consultations.
"Our work and our personal lives are pretty intertwined," Jacobsen said. "We spend enormous amounts of our time here and ask an enormous amount of our employees. We want to be there to help them in the good days, like adoptions or births, and be with them in their most difficult days and weeks. That's important to us."
IntraFi maintains a flexible, hybrid work schedule for its staff by permitting teams and departments to independently choose which days of the week they come into the office to work together. As of publication, the company is moving from one day per week in-office to two days a week starting in June. People in more senior roles have higher requirements: Managers will come in three days a week and department heads will come in four to five days a week.
"We believe that employees are adults," Joanne Talbot, vice president of human resources for IntraFi, told American Banker. "They can figure out what works best for them, and we want to give them that ability to do so."
The main exception to the in-office policy is the company's sales team, which has representatives stationed across the country to serve customers in their local communities.
"You're not going to put a Wisconsin boy in Texas," Jacobsen said. "We hired Texans for Texas and Californians for California. We want people that know the people of their area."
