Green Dot Teams With Stripe to Bolster ‘Cash Economy’

Digital bank and FinTech firm Green Dot has added it Stripe to its partnership network.

The collaboration, announced Monday (Sept. 8), will see Stripe Treasury employ Green Dot’s embedded finance platform Arc to let users add cash to their accounts at any of Green Dot’s more than 90,000 money processing locations around the country.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Stripe to embed more flexible, accessible financial services into its already expansive capabilities for today’s business owners,” Renata Caine, general manager and senior vice president of embedded finance at Green Dot, said in news release.

“This collaboration reflects our shared vision of enabling seamless, inclusive financial experiences using modern infrastructure, and we look forward to helping Stripe deliver more value to its users for years to come.”

The release argues that the “cash economy remains strong,” especially among low-to-moderate income households and older adults.

Green Dot cites Federal Reserve data showing that consumers 55 and older use cash for 22% of their payments, close to double the rate of younger consumers, while households making less than $25,000 annually rely on cash for 28% of their transactions.

That data also shows that 83% of American adults had cash at least once in the prior 30 days, while more than 90% said they planned to keep using cash as a payment method.

Meanwhile, research by PYMNTS Intelligence finds that cash and debit cards were favored for in-store purchases by consumers focused on budgeting and convenience, with 14% of debit card users and 20% of cash users citing budget management as a major reason for their choice.

“This partnership addresses the growing demand for accessible cash services, helping bridge the digital divide and enabling businesses to conveniently and affordably deposit cash into digital accounts,” the release said.

Green Dot earlier this year launched a partnership with Marqeta, letting that company’s customers and their users make cash deposits at Green Dot’s more than 95,000 U.S. locations.

And in January, Green Dot reamed with self-service deposit network Clip Money to expand Clip’s over-the-counter deposit service for businesses via Green Dot locations nationwide.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote last month about the repeated references to embedded finance in recent earnings call, a trend that suggest something worth noting.

“Financial services are shifting from being marketed directly by banks or card issuers to being distributed through software platforms, marketplaces and digital ecosystems,” that report said. “Embedded lending, in particular, is gaining ground as consumers and businesses grow accustomed to credit being offered seamlessly at checkout or within the applications they already use.”

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