Green Dot to Move Processing In-House with eCommLink Buy

The prepaid card marketer Green Dot Corp. said Tuesday that it is purchased some assets of eCommLink, allowing it to move its processing in-house.

Green Dot, of Monrovia, Calif., recently renewed an outsourcing agreement with Total System Services Inc. for processing and network connectivity. Green Dot's $2.5 million purchase of the certain processing and hardware assets of eCommLink will allow it to move those functions in-house under the supervision of John MacIlwaine, Green Dot's chief information officer.

The transition will take place over the two-year term of Green Dot's contract with TSYS.

"Approximately one-third of Green Dot's total processing expenses consists of fees paid to payment processors like TSYS and to Synovus, one of our issuing bank partners," John Keatley, Green Dot's chief financial officer, said in a press release.

"We expect that integrating our recent acquisitions of Bonneville Bancorp and the assets of [eCommLink] will enable us to … build out our own in-house card issuing and processing capabilities."

TSYS, of Columbus, Ga., said Tuesday that its revenue for the fourth quarter grew 7.3% to $472.2 million and its net income rose 18% to $61 million.