Last year, I woke up to the sleeping giant of auto finance. Over the last decade, we’ve witnessed an explosion of startups building software that dramatically cuts inefficiencies in the exchange of information, goods, and services – disrupting industry incumbents in the process. In the last year, Silicon Valley is…
Diverse Perspectives
I go to more conferences than are good for me. And if you’re like me, you don’t attend many sessions, and you meet with the same cast of characters. I have two suggestions on breaking those rules. If you read this blog, I’d argue there are two must-do conferences on…
Auto Lending is the New Payday Lending – and That’s a Good Thing
In my last post, I made the case that the financial product no one talks about – auto finance – is actually the single largest spend category in financial services for the un- and underbanked. (Read it) Today’s subprime customers can pay as much as 10 times more to get…
Subprime Auto Finance: Hidden Giant
No one who reads my blog will be surprised to learn that 1 in 4 Americans are underbanked. But I do see quite a few raised digital eyebrows when I point out that these 80 million consumers spend almost $80 billion on fees and interest for the most basic of…
Bluebird verses Greendot. Prepaid wins.
Walmart made Green Dot. Now it’s making Blue bird. The low-cost merchant has long offered a full suite of payments products to its customers, at record low prices. From international money transfer to bill-pay to check cashing and prepaid, Walmart has long been a pioneer of financial services for the…
It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green Dot
Kermit is not the only LA-based green creature that feels misunderstood. Just over a week ago, Green Dot Corporation (GDOT) lost over 60% of its value on the news that things weren’t as rosy as expected. This leader of the next generation of companies serving the unbanked and underbanked appears…
Banks: Don’t bank the underbanked; bank businesses that serve them well
Reposted from BAI’s Banking Strategies: Banks have struggled serving the un- and underbanked for decades. By definition, one wonders how banks can ever serve the unbanked. Even so, to date, it seems that a majority of bank efforts to capture more customers from both segments falls into two categories that…
Ninety nine Percent
I’m disappointed in the Occupy Wall Street movement, if you can call it that. I care, because I believe their beef is real. Economic inequality is significant. The poor are getting poorer. Main Street is suffering at the hands of Wall Street. Responsible, hard working people have odds stacked against…
Welcome Green Dot Bank
On Freedom Boulevard in Provo, Utah, nestled between the mountains of Uinta National Forest and Lake Utah is a nice little one-branch bank, pictured above. It looks innocent enough. Its CEO, Doug Christensen, invites personal emails from his home page. Ping him quickly, as I assume he’s soon out of a…
The ol’ “Money In” Problem
Jack Dorsey just raised $100 million at a valuation of $1 billion for his new startup, Square, which allows smart phones to act as merchant credit card swipers. Western Union charges a pretty dime to accept cash and move it elsewhere. Green Dot’s reload network accounts for roughly one third of its…