[thinkcomp]

Sure sounds like it started that way.

"Four and a half years ago I sent an email to my future co-founder Shamir with the subject “Let’s start a retail bank.” Over the following weeks, Simple was born."

https://www.simple.com/blog/the-next-chapter/

[zbruhnke]

Though this might have been their original intent, it was not the end result, ultimately they partnered with a bank and offered a fairly normal checking and savings account to their customers.

Was it a bank-like experience? absolutely(which is what I would argue is a HUGE part of the problem) but was it their own bank? Absolutely not