Page 14 - Pay Magazine s2014

companies & people
6 Payments Visionaries
steve streit
CEO, Green Dot Corp.
When will Green Dot CEO Steve Streit slow down? No time soon, it seems, as the 2009 Paybefore Awards Industry Achievement winner still has the fire in the belly to innovate and achieve. And, why—four years after executing a successful IPO, the industry’s first—is he still at Green Dot? He chuckles in response to that pointed question; then adds, “I’m still working on the vision to serve the ‘New America,’ the other ‘99 percent,’
of lower-income families.”
For Streit, that vision started in 1999, when he recog- nized the potential effect of the Internet on established industries, like banking. By 2001 he’d launched a regional prepaid card for teens, then broadened it and created a retail distribution network. Next, he forged a landmark distribution partnership with Walmart, teamed with GE Money Bank to launch the Walmart MoneyCard, invented the Green Dot Reload Network and, in 2012, created a mobile bank account called GoBank. Along
the way he bought a bank, established a processing business, launched an IPO and acquired Loopt, a Silicon Valley mobile technology firm.
Green Dot’s moves, architected by Streit, have resulted in a vertically integrated business, with its roots in prepaid, but, at this point, not a prepaid company. “We’re a New Age,
asset-light, technology-centric, data-driven, modern bank holding company,” he proclaims. And Green Dot is like no other financial services company, Streit believes, in the holistic way it combines a bank with cool new infrastructure, a gold mine of consumer data and in-house marketing capabilities, ranging from package design and promotions, to social media and product placement in TV and movies.
Getting all those assets under one roof was essential for what Streit sees coming in financial services.
In the next three years, he predicts, there will be more consolidation among prepaid players, and
the remaining players will be more formidable.
“It’s very tough to create new products, like we did with GoBank, if you have to find partners to execute each piece. Being vertically integrated prepares
us for the next wave of competition and new product opportunities.”
Acknowledging he could do almost anything at this point, with a heavy balance sheet and no debt, Streit stays involved because he’s a passionate entrepreneur. The instinct to grow and invent—even within the same company—is what drives him. “I’m in it for the joy of creating something that will last. I want to be known as an entrepreneur who created a bank that truly helps people solve problems and live happier lives,” Streit tells Paybefore.
What’s Green Dot’s next move? Streit won’t describe the company’s roadmap, but he suggests it will center on delivering additional services to Green Dot’s core customer segment—the underbanked—which con- tinues to expand. “We have rich data on as many
as 25 million current and past Green Dot customers that you can’t easily find at any traditional credit bureau,” he notes. “We’re a national financial services platform for which prepaid is only the beginning. We’re on a journey that will ultimately be judged by how low- and moderate-income Americans consume financial services.”
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