It is indeed First Century Bank that approves or denies the Refund Advance loan. Perhaps part of the confusion is that the IRS wasn't supposed to officially accept returns till today, though it's normal for the IRS to approve certain early-filed TurboTax returns ahead of the official launch date.
The changeover is related to Intuit's purchase of Credit Karma, which occurred in late 2020 too late to be fully implemented last tax season. (That's also why CK Tax, which was sold to Square / Cash App then to gain antitrust approval for Intuit buying CK, wasn't rebranded Cash App Taxes till this year.) Though CK is now part of Intuit, it remains fully separate from TurboTax.
Also, TurboTax carried over its long-standing practice of requiring a new card for Refund Advance every year. Though that was appropriate for the Turbo Visa prepaid card (reloadable but commonly disposed of after the refund is spent), it's not really appropriate for CK Money Spend which is an online bank account similar to Chime or Varo. (Most tax debit cards are moving to online bank accounts this year for regulatory reasons as well as the likely future use of refund direct deposits for stimulus checks, advance CTC payments, etc. I believe Green Dot is even issuing new Turbo Visa Cards, which are still being offered to some non-Refund Advance customers, as online bank accounts instead of prepaid cards.)
