Every dollar has a ripple effect you never see

Where does your money actually go?

When you deposit your paycheck, pay your rent, or save for your kid's future, you're told your money is "in the bank." But where does it actually go?

If you bank with a mega bank, the answer is mostly: somewhere else. Research shows that for every dollar deposited at a large national chain, only about 14 cents recirculates in your local economy. The rest flows to corporate headquarters, global investment portfolios, and executive compensation — often thousands of miles from your neighborhood.

Meanwhile, community institutions — credit unions, CDFIs, community banks — recirculate 3 to 5 times more locally. They fund more small business loans, create more nearby jobs, and charge fewer predatory fees. But most people don't know they exist, let alone how to compare them.

What Mylno is building

Mylno is a financial transparency platform. Our core engine scores transactions across 10 dimensions of impact — from local economic recirculation and environmental footprint to job quality, ownership diversity, and supply chain transparency. It's designed to sit alongside your bank account and show you, in plain terms, what your money is doing after it leaves your hands.

The full Mylno platform is in development. But we believe the most important financial choice most people make is also the most invisible one: where they keep their money in the first place.

Why we built Mylno Lite

Mylno Lite is a free, focused tool that answers one question: what happens to your money when you bank here vs. there?

Pick your current bank. Pick a community alternative. See the 8 ripple effects side by side — dollar recirculation, local jobs, small business lending, wage quality, personal cost, and more. Every number is sourced and every estimate is labeled as an estimate.

We built it for the people who've been told the banking system works for everyone, when the reality is that millions of Californians are either paying too much to participate or locked out entirely. CDFIs and credit unions were built for exactly this — but they don't have the marketing budget of JPMorgan Chase. We think transparency can level that playing field.

Mylno

Mylno is short for what we believe in: making your local neighborhood obvious. The economic connections between your spending and your community have always existed. They've just never been visible at the moment you make a choice. We're here to change that.