Last updated November 2026
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 29, 2024 — In 2023, Barron’s published three articles about Tellus App, Inc. (“Tellus”), the proptech company behind the Tellus savings app, the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee at the time wrote to the company with questions about its business, and the FDIC raised concerns about how Tellus’s website described deposit insurance. Tellus answered the Senate and the FDIC in writing. This page sets out what was raised, how Tellus responded, and what has changed since, so that customers, partners and anyone researching Tellus can find the company’s account in one place.
What was raised in 2023
The coverage and the inquiries came in this order:
- April 11, 2023. Barron’s published a cover story on Tellus that questioned its marketing, the risks in its real estate lending, and customer messages that named JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo as banking partners.
- May 2, 2023. Citing that article, Sen. Sherrod Brown, then chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, wrote to Tellus with five questions: what services Tellus provides, how customer funds would be protected if Tellus became insolvent, how it assesses lending risk (including the risk from falling Bay Area property values), whether its stated bank relationships existed, and how it tells customers that Tellus accounts are not FDIC-insured. He also wrote to the FDIC asking it to review Tellus, and Barron’s reported on both letters the same day.
- May 25, 2023. The FDIC’s Legal Division sent Tellus an advisory letter saying that a website statement about where Tellus held its cash could mislead consumers about deposit insurance. The letter also asked about other statements, including how Tellus described its bank relationships.
- December 29, 2023. Barron’s reported that the FDIC had asked Tellus to change its marketing. It also questioned an influencer video promoting an FDIC-insured account option at Capital One, and reported that Capital One said it had never offered products in partnership with Tellus.
How Tellus responded
Tellus sent a written response to Chairman Brown on May 30, 2023, answering each of his five questions. It described the company’s property management platform and cash accounts, how customer funds were held, its business-purpose lending through licensed mortgage brokers and how it assessed loan risk, and the many places where Tellus tells customers that it is not a bank and is not FDIC-insured.
On the bank question, Tellus confirmed that it has never had a banking partnership with JPMorgan Chase or Wells Fargo. Rather, Tellus was a customer of those banks and had accounts with both. In one-off messaging, to a small group of users, a customer-support message, sent after the bank failures of March 2023 described both banks as “banking partners.” That description was incorrect. Tellus acknowledged it in its response, sent a correction to the customers who had received the message, and revised how its website described its bank relationships.As of November 2026, Tellus has received no further requests from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
Tellus answered the FDIC’s advisory letter on June 9, 2023. Tellus pointed out that it consistently and prominently notifies all users it is not a bank and that it is not FDIC-insured. Tellus further noted that none of its products, at the time, was FDIC-insured. Tellus removed the statement the FDIC had identified and revised its website and other consumer materials to remove language that could suggest Tellus accounts were FDIC-insured.
In the fall of 2023, Tellus began offering a High Yield Account option that used individual sub-accounts at Capital One. Tellus set them up as a customer of Capital One’s escrow sub-account service, which was designed and sold by Capital One as a way to provide FDIC-insured customer segregated escrow sub-accounts. Customers managed those FDIC-insured funds in the Tellus app. Tellus removed the High Yield Account from its product suite on April 2, 2024, and Tellus sent every customer’s remaining balance in that account, including all interest earned, to the customer’s linked bank account.
In 2024, the FDIC requested documents about Tellus’s deposit-insurance statements, its bank arrangements and the High Yield Account. Tellus provided them and answered the agency’s follow-up questions. As of November 2026, the FDIC has not issued any enforcement order or imposed any penalty against Tellus, and Tellus has received no further requests from the agency.
“The questions raised in 2023 were reasonable ones to ask of any company that serves savers, and we answered them in writing. We were wrong to call two banks our partners. We were their customer, not their partner. We corrected the language and told the customers who received that message. This page brings together what we said then and how our accounts work now, so readers can understand our response and compare today’s accounts.”
Tellus today
Customers can access two distinct types of account through the Tellus app. Details are on the Tellus Wallet overview and the Deposit Account page. Tellus’s Terms of Service govern the Tellus Cash Account, Boost, Reserve and Vault, and the Tellus Deposit Account Agreement governs the Deposit Account.
Tellus is not a bank. Tellus is not FDIC-insured.
Questions people ask about Tellus
Is Tellus a bank?
No. Tellus is not a bank. Tellus is not FDIC-insured. Tellus is a property technology company, and its cash accounts, including Boost, Reserve and Vault, are not bank accounts. Tellus’s Terms of Service govern those accounts.
Is any of my money at Tellus FDIC-insured?
Deposit Account funds are held at Central Bank of Kansas City, Member FDIC. Deposit Account funds are eligible for FDIC insurance up to applicable limits. Maximum account balance per Deposit Account is $100,000.
Tellus is not a bank. Tellus is not FDIC-insured. FDIC insurance protects eligible deposits only in the event of the failure of Central Bank of Kansas City. FDIC insurance does not apply to Tellus itself or to Tellus’s other products and services.
For additional details, see the Deposit Account page and the Tellus Deposit Account Agreement.
Did Tellus ever partner with JPMorgan Chase or Wells Fargo?
No. Tellus has never had a banking “partnership” with either bank, as it told the Senate Banking Committee in May 2023. A support message used in March and April 2023 called them partners, and an earlier version of Tellus’s website said customer deposits were “custodied” at those banks. Both descriptions were incorrect and imprecise. Tellus was only a customer (not a partner) of both banks and Tellus had accounts at both banks. Tellus sent customers corrections of both.
What happened to the High Yield Account at Capital One?
It was a former account option that used individual FDIC-insured sub-accounts at Capital One. Tellus offered the accounts as a customer of the bank’s escrow sub-account service and with the awareness and permission of Capital One. The High Yield Account ended on April 2, 2024, and Tellus sent each customer’s remaining balance, including interest earned, to the customer’s linked bank account. Today’s Deposit Account is a separate product that launched in early 2026.
What was the FDIC’s role?
The FDIC’s Legal Division sent Tellus an advisory letter in May 2023 about deposit-insurance statements on its website, and Tellus revised those materials. In 2024, the FDIC requested documents, which Tellus provided, and Tellus answered the agency’s follow-up questions. As of November 2026, the FDIC has not issued any enforcement order or imposed any penalty against Tellus, and Tellus has received no further requests from the agency.
The Tellus app is available on the App Store and Google Play. The Tellus web app is at web.tellusapp.com.
About Tellus
Tellus App, Inc. is a proptech company headquartered in Silicon Valley. The Tellus savings app helps people save with cash accounts powered by real estate, and gives independent landlords property management software. Get more details in our How it Works page.
Tellus is not a bank. Tellus is not FDIC-insured. The FDIC-insured Deposit Account is established at Central Bank of Kansas City, Member FDIC. Eligible deposits held at Central Bank of Kansas City are insured by the FDIC up to applicable limits in the event of the bank’s failure. FDIC insurance does not apply to Tellus itself or to non-deposit products or services.
Rewards on Tellus’s non-deposit accounts vary and are determined by each customer’s actions and choices in the app.
See www.TellusApp.com for full terms and conditions.
Media contact: press@tellusapp.com
