Greenlight’s new B2B offering brings kid-focused banking to traditional firms
Courtesy of Anna Hrushka, Banking Dive
Atlanta-based Greenlight is making its kid-focused banking services available to traditional financial institutions, the fintech announced on Wednesday.
The new partnership program, called Greenlight for Banks, allows banks and credit unions to offer the fintech’s suite of banking and education products to their customers through a co-branded landing page and app.
Over half a dozen firms, including Morgan Stanley, WaFd Bank and Community Financial Credit Union have partnered with Greenlight to offer the fintech’s services to their customers, Matt Wolf, Greenlight’s senior vice president of business development said.
Greenlight is actively involved in discussions with over 100 financial institutions, he added.
“In those conversations with financial institutions, we found that many don’t have the expertise or resources to create a compelling digital banking experience for the next generation,” Wolf said. “We’ve designed something that really helps financial institutions, seamlessly integrate family banking into their own ecosystems.”
Greenlight, which was co-founded by Tim Sheehan and Johnson Cook, launched a debit card for kids in 2017.
The fintech has since expanded its offerings to include savings and investing for children, while allowing parents to automate allowances and supervise their dependents’ money management.
In January, Greenlight launched a financial literacy game called Level Up, which banks and credit unions will also be able to make available to their own customers through Greenlight for Banks.
Lenders who partner with Greenlight have the option to hold the deposits gathered by the fintech, or allow them to be held by Greenlight’s partner bank, Community Federal Savings Bank, which issues the Greenlight debit card.
While banks are eager to launch products that reach the next generation of customers, bank accounts geared toward children typically don’t have high balances, meaning, they won’t be large deposit generators for banks, Wolf said.
“A couple transactions a month is probably not going to really rise to the top of their technology roadmap and prioritization,” Wolf said.
But offering services targeted toward kids and their parents allows a bank or credit union to create deep and potentially long-lasting relationships, Wolf added.