Innovation is one of many words that can be used to describe MetaBank, also known as one of the largest prepaid debit card issuer in the United States. With their new faster payments platform (the first offering is Mastercard Send), they compete with many of the largest players in the financial institution industry and have created a competitive edge over most prepaid card issuers.
Speaking with Jennifer Worley, SVP, Product Management as to why Meta made this move, she stated “Meta is a full-service provider and a leading issuer, and we’ve been enabling the secure transfer of funds via ACH and wire for many years. Adding new faster payments methods to our portfolio complements our existing product suite, enables the adoption of new technology and responds to business and consumer demand for faster payment options.”
Most do not know what a power house Meta is and has been for years in money movement. This latest addition will give businesses the capability to bring faster payments to consumers. Down the road, Meta plans to bring services like person-to-person payments (P2P) to all of their offerings both debit and prepaid debit, think Venmo and Zelle. It also provides their partners with similar access members of The Clearing House have to speed payments and gives partners the functionality to compete with Ingo Money’s push payments should they choose.
“Meta offers faster payments to partners and clients via a variety of solutions, in particular payment methods that offer speed and flexibility to make a real difference for businesses and consumers. This includes traditional and same-day ACH, wires and now Mastercard Send – and we’ll continue to enable new solutions in the future. As an organization that transfers nearly $1 billion per day in ACH and wire transactions, we bring unmatched depth of experience in implementation and technical integration to our partners and often serve as a one-stop shop for them,” said Jennifer Worley.
Meta will also use this innovation to support their consumer and commercial loan business with creative use cases to foster innovation in the same way they have with prepaid. Last but not least, this also could bring MetaBank and its prepaid processors and program managers the capabilities to fuel the instant payment of wages for gig economy companies such as Lyft and Uber.
Overview by Sue Brown, Director, Prepaid Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
