Green Dot Speaks Out On CFPB’s Prepaid Ruling

As the specifics of the CFPB’s pre-paid card rule are making their way through the ecosystem, the players are starting to come out with their takes on the newest set of financial regulations.

Among the opinionators was Green Dot CEO and founder Steve Streit. Green Dot is one of the biggest — and best known — players in the pre-paid space and credits itself as being the inventor of “the prepaid debit card industry.”

It is also the largest provider of reloadable prepaid debit cards and cash reloading processing services in the United States.

“Green Dot embraces the new rule as recognition that the industry we started more than 15 years ago continues to serve an increasingly significant role in the everyday financial lives of a growing number of American families. We fully support the CFPB’s mission to ensure fairness, integrity and consumer protections for all participants in the financial system,” Streit noted.

“For many years, Green Dot has voluntarily provided full checking account style consumer protections for its customers and has never charged overdraft or penalty fees on Green Dot Bank’s prepaid and checking products. It’s gratifying to know that prepaid can now move to a level playing field that can better serve consumers while allowing the entire industry to move past the period of regulatory uncertainty.”

While many praised the clarity the new rules bring with them in their wake, other sector observers did express some concern that we would see prepaid cards regulated like credit cards in some cases. Others — particularly Google and PayPal — had objections to certain mobile wallet products falling under the jurisdiction of the new regulations.