{"asOf":"2026-09-05","merchant":"SSDF INC","kind":"role","id":"middleware","title":"BaaS middleware","kicker":"Ledger in the middle","body":"Connects fintech brands to sponsor banks. Typically no bank charter and no FDIC insurance of its own. The Synapse failure was a recordkeeping failure: no single party had a complete, accurate map of which end user owned which dollars at which bank.","clerk":"Generally not a depository. CFPB and bankruptcy court saw Synapse as a company, not a bank.","ssdf":"SSDF is not middleware. This atlas maps that layer. It does not replace it."}