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…
Spent – Amex and Participant take on financial inclusion
Amex’ visionary Dan Schulman is marshaling that giant to embrace financial inclusion in very real ways, not just a philanthropic or PR side show. On the PR side, though, they have partnered with the guys behind Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman (Jeff Skoll’s Participant Media), to create a short…
The Underbanked Mega Challenge is here!
The past two years Core Innovation Capital has issued a national challenge for who makes the most innovative product or service serving the emerging middle class, aka the un- and underbanked, the cash-preferred, the credit underserved. Sign up here at corevc.com/megachallenge. This year, we’re improving and expanding. It’s not just a…
Customers in the Cards for TSYS
Yesterday, back-end processor TSYS and prepaid card proprietor NetSpend announced the former would buy the latter for $1.4 billion. This is not just another acquisition. It’s interesting because it affirms the value of the much beleaguered general purpose reloadable prepaid (GPR) card industry, it concedes value to a much maligned…
Underbanked Wish List
Goal and resolutions? Too personal. Predictions for this coming year? Too much pressure. Post mortem on last year? Too boring. So, instead, here is my wish list for our industry for the year of the Snake. An Iconic Brand. Confidence in banking is at historic lows. Perception of alternative financial services are…
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…
Let’s Halve the $78b Spent by the Underbanked on Fees and Split the Difference
People generally assume serving the underbanked is a noble thing to do. And it is, if you do it right. You can make an incredible difference in the lives of a quarter of the US population by providing them with better tools with which to spend, borrow, plan and save.…
I’ve seen the future, and it’s Prepaid
About a year ago, a friend set up a call for me with Suze Orman, while she was still planning her Approved Card. She was somewhat weirdly obsessed with the vision of a digital cash economy. No paper. No credit. Also, not realistic. General purpose prepaid has basically gotten a…
More than one in four Americans are Unbanked or Underbanked
The FDIC updated its 2009 figures (based on 2008 Census data) of who uses what kind of basic financial services and released them yesterday. It’s not just any four years later, but marks a period that represents significant change in the economy and individual American’s lives. What did we learn?…
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…