Green Dot Credits Retailers for 'Fabulous' First Quarter

Despite having fewer prepaid cards in the market, Green Dot delivered a first quarter that exceeded its executives' expectations with $78.3 million in adjusted earnings.

Green Dot had 12% fewer cards in the market because of the impact of discontinuing its popular MoneyPak product in February of 2015. MoneyPak was an off-the-shelf card purchased to load funds into a prepaid account, but Green Dot pulled the product after it became favored by fraudsters.

Still, the company enjoyed "a fabulous quarter … in every way with strong performances from all of our diversified business lines," Green Dot's chairman and CEO, Steve Streit, said in press release Wednesday.

Total operating revenue for Green Dot was nearly flat at $228.2 million for the quarter, compared with $230.9 million for the first quarter of 2015, while net income fell 24%, to $32.9 million, from $40.8 million.

Green Dot renewed retail distribution partnerships with CVS and 7-Eleven and added three more retail chains — Stater Brothers, Garlands and Kwik Trip — and 250 more financial service centers locations, Streit said.

"We are on track or ahead of schedule with our new product rollouts, we are expanding our partnership with Uber, and our business development pipeline is the best it has ever been," Streit added.

New products included a new Walmart MoneyCard and a new version of the MoneyPak product, with Rite Aid, Walgreens and Kroger currently selling the product.

The earnings report comes less than a month after a public spat between Green Dot and shareholder Harvest Capital Strategies escalated with Harvest seeking to oust Streit and arguing over who should serve on the company's board of directors.

Green Dot entered a multiyear agreement with Member Benefits Corp. during the quarter, making it the exclusive prepaid card provider for the union, which consists of more than two million members in the hotel, health care and property services sectors.

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