Social Finance Inc, or SoFi, said on Tuesday it would buy community bank Golden Pacific Bancorp for about 22.3 million in an allcash deal, accelerating the online lenders push to become a national bank.

SoFi said it would pay 2.55 for every share of Sacramento, Californiabased Golden Pacific.

Separately, SoFi also announced the launch of its firstever credit card.

In January, the startup was valued at 8.65 billion in a deal with a blankcheck firm backed by veteran investor Chamath Palihapitiya.

Founded in 2011, SoFi capitalized on the retrenchment of banks from large swaths of consumer lending in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

Last year, the online lender acquired payments platform Galielo for 1.2 billion.

Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel

Source Reuters