Pasadena’s Green Dot and Walmart Team Up in the Laboratory

East Pasadena-headquartered Green Dot Corporation and Walmart have signed a pair of agreements, one maintaining Green Dot as Walmart’s Money Card bank and the other making them collaborators in technological research.

Under the pacts, Green Dot continues to serve as the issuing bank and program manager for the Walmart MoneyCard program for an additional period of seven years, while the entities jointly establish a new fintech accelerator under the name TailFin Labs, LLC.

Fintech refers to technology used to support or enable banking and financial services.

“With this expanded relationship, and by leveraging Walmart’s footprint and existing offerings with Green Dot’s cutting-edge capabilities, we’ll be uniquely positioned to offer an unmatched set of customer experiences that sit at the nexus of omni-channel retail and tech-enabled financial services,” Daniel Eckert, Senior Vice President for Walmart Services and Digital Acceleration, said.

The issuing bank agreement will take effect on January 1, 2020 and replace the current agreement set to expire in May 2020. Since its 2006 launching, the Walmart MoneyCard has grown into the largest retailer exclusive prepaid account program in the United States, according to an Oct. 29 statement from Green Dot.

Walmart and Green Dot created the Walmart MoneyCard in 2006. Green Dot issues the card that’s available at Walmart stores or online at WalmartMoneyCard.com.

The statement said MoneyCard accounts are FDIC-insured and offer cash-back rewards on Walmart purchases, as well as early direct deposit, online bill pay, Prize Savings, and almost all of the features that one would expect from a traditional checking account, without the risk of penalties, overdraft fees or other hidden fees.

TailFin Labs will develop products, services and technologies that sit at the intersection of retail shopping and consumer financial services. The accelerator, majority-owned by Walmart, will develop tech-enabled solutions to seamlessly integrate retail shopping and financial services for both consumers and businesses.

The goal is optimize upon Walmart’s suite of omnichannel retail shopping tools by leveraging industry-leading fintech solutions wrapped around Green Dot’s industry leading Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, the statement said.

Steve Streit, Green Dot Founder and CEO, said the company is proud to extend their partnership with Walmart with the new agreements.

“We believe the combination of Walmart’s unmatched retail ecosystem with Green Dot’s innovative and highly flexible BaaS platform, which enables the world’s largest technology and consumer brands to address their consumers with bespoke financial products and services, has the opportunity to create and bring to market many new and exciting innovations over the years to come,” said Steven Streit, Green Dot founder and chief executive officer.