The fallout from the collapse of Synapse continues, with several partner banks facing a lawsuit alleging mishandling of customer funds, and one of those banks insisting that end user funds it once held were moved by the BaaS platform before it went bankrupt.
The collapse of Synapse earlier this year left thousands of customers of its clients - including Yotta and Juno - unable to access their funds. Since then, there has been confusion over which Synapse bank partners hold which funds belonging to these customers.
Last week, a lawsuit seeking class action status was filed against American Bank, AMG National Trust, Lineage Bank and Evolve Bank & Trust and Evolve's parent Evolve Bancorp.
The suit says that the bankruptcy process for Synapse has revealed "significant failings, including that Synapse and the Partner Banks did not maintain accurate ledgers, leading to incorrect customer fund balances".
The suit says the banks have been "blaming each other for the inability to unwind Synapse's ledger and fully reconcile missing user funds," leaving many customers unable to access their money and "no clear ability to discern which of the Partner Banks hold their money".
This week, Evolve has moved to defend itself, publishing an open letter to Synapse users detailing its actions to return money to users. The bank says that the "vast majority" of Synapse funds that it held were moved to other lenders last year, before the fintech went bankrupt.
"For example, Synapse directed Evolve to send all funds belonging to Yotta, Juno, and Yield Street End Users to another Synapse Brokerage ecosystem bank and these transactions were completed via the Federal Reserve System. This occurred in a series of transactions, in which Synapse moved more than $300 million away from Evolve, between October 11 and November 1, 2023."
Continues the letter: "We know that the founder of the now-bankrupt Synapse has alleged Evolve still has funds, which would conveniently solve the problem of his inaccurate ledgers. But the reality, as Ankura’s [a firm brought in to carry out a reconciliation process] analysis revealed, is that this is simply not true."
Evolve says that it believes it has accurately reconstructed end users’ ecosystem balances and has begun the process of disbursing $24.5 million it holds.