Mercury vs Brex
short answerBoth are traditional neobanks with similar positioning — the real differences are FX markup, fees, license and geography, compared field by field below.
Mercury: Startup banking; 200K+ companies.
Brex: Corporate cards + banking for startups.
Side by side
| Mercury | Brex | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | traditional | traditional |
| Audience | SMB & startups | SMB & startups |
| HQ | San Francisco, US | San Francisco, US |
| Founded | 2017 | 2017 |
| Custody | Custodial | Custodial |
| Regulation | Partner-bank model | Partner-bank model |
| License detail | Partner banks (Choice, Column) | Partner banks |
| Card | MC · Business debit + credit | MC · Corporate credit |
| Cashback | 1.5% (IO card) | Points |
| Yield | Treasury yield | Yield on idle cash |
| FX markup | 3% currency conversion fee on all non-USD card transactions (Mastercard rate) (2026-07) | Up to 3% FX markup on transactions needing conversion; local-currency cards avoid it (2026-07) |
| Services | fiat pay-in (bank rails), fiat pay-out (bank rails), own IBAN / account no., virtual cards | — |
| Stablecoins | No | No |
| KYC | Yes | Yes |
| Regions | North America | North America |
| Reported users | — | — |
Figures compiled from public sources, for comparison only — not financial advice. "Up to" rates change constantly; always confirm with the issuer. Spotted an error? Suggest a fix.