Georgia Fintech Academy
Laura Gibson-Lamothe and Georgia Fintech Academy students discussing various Fintech related topics with special fintech executive guests.
Georgia Fintech Academy
Episode 11: Payments - gift cards, general purpose reloadable, Incomm and financial inclusion - Bob Skiba, EVP Incomm and Qazi Haq, recent GSU Robinson College grad
Tommy Marshall, Executive Director of the Georgia Fintech Academy hosts Bob Skiba, EVP of Incomm in a discussion of the global payments business run by Incomm. The history of gift cards and prepaid cards is revealed with a discussion of the relevance of these products to financial inclusion. Qazi Haq joins the discussion as a recent graduate of the Georgia State Robinson College of Business. Qazi will join EY as a management consultant.
Georgia Fintech Academy
https://www.georgiafintechacademy.org/
LinkedIn (Georgia Fintech Academy)
https://www.linkedin.com/company/georgia-fintech-academy/
Welcome to the Georgia FinTech Academy podcast. The Georgia Vintech Academy is a collaboration between Georgia's FinTech industry and the university system of Georgia. This talent development initiative addresses a massive demand for FinTech professionals and give learners the specialized education experiences needed to enter the FinTech sector.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody. This is Tommy Marshall executive director of the Georgia FinTech Academy. Welcome to the next episode of our weekly podcast. It's great to have all of you that are frequent listeners back, uh, and I'm excited for today's show. We're gonna be deep digging into the payments industry and business, and I'm very excited to have Bob Skiba of income with us here today. And then causing hock is a return student contributor to the conversation recently graduated from Georgia state. You can't see him, but he's still wearing his gown and mortar board. Uh, he looks fantastic. Um, Bob, thanks so much for being with us today. Um, I just want to give you a chance to introduce yourself to the audience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you. Thanks very much. Uh, Tammy, and I'm very excited and pleased to, uh, attend this, uh, webcast and podcast and, uh, uh, look forward to, uh, talking about, uh, payments and prepaid and the payments industry and transactionality, uh, which is the epicenter for, uh, payments in the United States, if not the world. So, uh, very, uh, excited to join. And, uh, can't wait to get into some of the questions and some of the observations.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Bob, tell us about your, um, career. How did you get into this awesome industry that we call FinTech?
Speaker 3:Well, I kind of backed into it. My background is, is really retail. So, um, uh, the initial part of it, even to the point where I was in business and a small men's clothing store operation back in my hometown of Detroit, Michigan area. So I started with that and then went into national, uh, retail retailers and work for people like, uh, Lord and Taylor Saks fifth Avenue, um, and also Sears, uh, had various roles either in the finance or operations area. Um, worked as controller for Sears, uh, uh, uh, for about five years and then went to gap, Inc. Worked in financial services is an operations that, uh, uh, gap the corporate entity for all the other divisions, all Navy Republic and so on. And, uh, ultimately ended up as chief internal auditor of gap gapping. Uh, uh, and this was kind of in the heady days of, uh, the.com as they talk about it. Um, so somewhere between 97, uh, 2004, uh, we had Steve jobs on the board. We had, I reported to Charles Schwab. Uh, we had, uh, Meg Whitman, uh, the Fisher family owned a gap at that time. So they were in it and a whole series of, uh, uh, financial, uh, really people that fact that either started whole industries or were contributing factors to, uh, FinTech. And we didn't even have the word FinTech time, but California. Yes, it really was. And we were based out of San Francisco. So we were kind of@theepicenterofthe.com explosion, the first phase that hit about 2000 to 2010. And so, uh, it's very exciting time to be there. And when I was at gap, um, uh, we issued paper gift certificates and we had issued paper gift certificates at any other retailers I've been with, whether it was fax here is gap, uh, even a short stint at home Depot. And they were always fraught with paper issues and trying to reconcile it, unclaimed property issues and a whole series of things that were, you know, paper and pencil and, and kind of a throwback to the old, uh, ledger days. Uh, a company came to see me from Louisville, Kentucky by the name of stored valued solutions. And they had, uh, along with, uh, one other player, uh, out of, uh, uh, first data at the time had come up with something called a gift card way to have somebody come in the store, purchase something for themselves or for somebody else and have that redeemed, uh, after retailer, either in the store or at that time, which was new online. And so, uh, we started a program with, uh, uh, plastic gift cards with, with the company store value solutions, which was at that time a division of Ceridian Corp and, uh, piloted it, uh, with old Navy and, uh, turned out to be quite a success because people really liked gift cards and, uh, it allowed them to purchase and then send or purchase and use for their own South use. Uh, and a funny thing happened on the way to the operational efficiency that we were looking for with, uh, uh, transitioning from, uh, paper certificates to plastic gift cards. Uh, people bought more when they had those gift cards because, uh, some significant other or family member or friend would buy a gift card, give it to the individual, let's say it was a$50 card. Well, they wouldn't spend just 50, they'd go 75$80 because they figured, Hey, you know, I can get them the, uh, I have$50 to spend and I can just add a few more dollars and get something even more than what I was anticipating and go up a grade or, uh, get an accessory piece. I get, uh, you know, the top and the bottom, so to speak and gift cards were a big success in not only at gap, but, uh, they caught on across support restaurants, um, amusement parks of the Disney card, uh, uh, was a very big hit. And then also a little company out of Seattle at the time Amazon. So, um, various retailers department store chains like Macy sacks, Sears Penney's Kohl's, uh, Nordstrom's Neiman Marcus all started investing in gift cards and marketing, and it was, uh, very well received by the public. So that's how, uh, I got kind of into it. And then, uh, about four years after we launched gift cards at gap, the company that had approached me as a matter of fact, to start using them as a, an enabler for gift cards, they were our processor in the background, much like a credit card as a processor for a bank. That's a tie to like, uh, Wells Fargo or bank of America. Well, they would process the cards. And, um, at the end of the day, we, uh, uh, really liked that process and they really seemed to like me. So they offered me a job and I became president general manager is stored value solutions, which was one of the, uh, premier, uh, gift card, uh, uh, processors, uh, uh, our main competitor at that time was, uh, first data's, uh, uh, gift card program. So that's how I kind of backed into the FinTech payment industry. And, uh, obviously went from there, from gift cards and then other what we call prepaid card products, uh, that we had, uh, uh, doing these were loyalty programs, uh, state funded and federal funded, like, uh, EBT, electronic benefits, transactions, snap, as they call it now, uh, cards. So various different things that we were able to expand with that pre-care, uh, paid, uh, format. Uh, I was at a stored value solution for just about five years and, uh, we were acquired by a private equity firm. So I took a, uh, uh, a package so to speak and, uh, left store guide solution came to work for the present company I'm with now about 10 years ago in comp, which is based out of Atlanta, Georgia. And it's one of those ingredient players as I call it, you may not know income, but you know, some of our customers, which include people like Walmart, CVS, Rite aid, Walgreens, Costco, uh, seven$11 general family dollar, uh, uh, and various other, uh, retailers, restaurants. So, and we are a program manager, uh, which means we, uh, host and sponsor gift card malls or gift card centers. Is there no. And so if you go into CVS or Walgreens or Walmart or Sam's club, and you see a gift card mall, these are a collection of, uh, what are called puzzles gift cards. So department stores, restaurants, uh, airlines, uh, toy stores, pharmacy, uh, those cards are enabled through the technology that income provides. We're integrated into that host retailer, that Walmart, that, uh, Walgreens, CVS, and we enabled the consumer to come in, put funds on the card, activate it, the consumer walks out with a car that has been purchased and is ready to use at that specific retailer.
Speaker 2:And this is, uh, so like Kasi, have you, how many have you bought a gift card recently?
Speaker 4:I have asked you about defy recently. My friend had a birthday party for the gift card, one of the easiest way to get a gift versus buying something they don't like. So they have the opportunity to participate, like with the gift cards
Speaker 2:You acquire that gift card, it, uh, in a retail location.
Speaker 4:Yes. Prior to the pandemic, when stores were open, I did, it was a TJ Maxx,
Speaker 2:TJ Maxx. Uh, and, um, I'm guessing you like maybe walked in and there was, uh, uh, one of these, uh, kind of carousels that has a bunch of cards hanging on it. Is that, was that the case. Exactly. And that, and Bob that's, I mean, that's part of a great, one of the key services that income offers too, right. Is like getting those, um, carousels in place, all those card trees. I don't know what all the right words are for those, um, product. Um, it was product showcase areas. I have that right.
Speaker 3:And we act, we actually, as a turnkey, so we will solicit a retailer host location. Let's call it where we want to put up the gift card center. And we then come in and, and actually merchandise it. We will solicit, uh, you know, kind of a portfolio of brand cards that, uh, the host location wants to have on the rack. Uh, and you know, they're very judicious about it. They don't want a competitor on the rack, but they'll take, you know, if it's a regular brick and mortar retail store, they might take restaurants because they don't have a restaurant on premise obviously, or airlines or entertainment, or, uh, gaming is a huge, uh, component part of a gift card mall, a gift card center of the cards. And we also offer our own what are called network branded cards. So we have a visa, MasterCard, American express discover cards. In fact, we have, uh, converted to, uh, a product that wherever you, if it's branded network visa, it's any place where visa is accepted, if it's MasterCard so on, and these cards you can be used at multiple different retail locations. So some people like those versus a specific card for a specific vendor, like, uh, um, um, bass pro shops or, or, um, Kabbalah will, they might say, well, I like that, but I'd like to give a bigger range. Uh, and obviously if, if the, uh, recipient of the gift card is, uh, you know, home improvement person or a clothing Maven they'd want to give them specific to it, but sometimes they want to have a card that can be used in any place with visa, MasterCard, American express discoveries. So we are, we're the largest issuers of visa cards in the world, for instance, but those are hosted on the same rack that as you said, Tommy, we manage the entire experience for the consumer coming in, showing the rack, showing the displays, the collateral marketing material and peripherals that help, uh, kind of, uh, uh, let's call it, embrace the gift card. So it's not just a piece of plastic, there's a holder for it, there's packaging for it, so you can dress it up. So it's not just a cold piece of plastic.
Speaker 2:I've had, I had an opportunity. I think it was back in November to visit the, uh, demonstration lab area at the income headquarters. And I was just, it's an amazing, it was an amazing experience, uh, cause I had not appreciated just how many different variations of displays there are of card designs. Um, just all that. It's just fascinating, all of the different types of, uh, interaction and engagement techniques that are used in selling these cards in the store.
Speaker 3:And, and one of the reasons for that is you get very limited time and to consumer will actually, you've got seconds really, to really attract. So the cars have to be attractive. They've got to speak to the consumer and tell a story, so to speak. So you need to have the card art. So we hire, you know, when you talk about FinTech and trying to get programmers, everything else, we also need people like, uh, commercial designers, uh, for, uh, uh, packaging and display people logisticians because we print literally a billion cards a year, which then have to go out on those racks. So we need to print them, get them to our warehouses, get them to the retailer warehouses and that type of thing. And in addition to all of that, which is the, the kind of the most visual part of what income does. We also have a portfolio of other things we do. For instance, we do telling a transit where the Georgia peach pass, where the Florida sun pass. Uh, we do tele and transit for, uh, uh, people out in Utah, for instance, for bus and rail service in New York state for, uh, rail service and, and, uh, subway service. So it just doesn't start and end with that, uh, gift card center. Uh, there were other things that we do that fact you don't even know about it. As I said, we're more of an ingredient. I always, as I said, we, you don't know us, but you know, our customers. And, uh, we have a kind of a suite of products, anything from, uh, healthcare and affinity programs to incentives, uh, to digital cards as well too, which has been very popular right now, especially with the, uh, COVID-19 issues where people can't get out, uh, or don't want to get out to go to a retail establishment. They can buy the cards online and send them to, uh, recipients, loved ones, that type of thing. So there is a host of, uh, things that we do that are not just the traditional gift cards, like lottery cards, uh, and some other, uh, several other things. So it's an interesting, uh, you know, look at fact across section of what are called prepaid, which is kind of exciting because it also allows us to go into things that, uh, are, we're an enabler for people that don't have the means unbanked or underbanked consumers and financial inclusions, uh, you know, making utility payments is one of the things that we enable at the point of sale, the retailers as well, food, so many different products and services.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I want to come back to that and talk some more about the financial inclusion elements. Um, but I guess another thing I wanted to call out that that's been, um, an item I've learned, uh, in the years of dealing with in college, like I know we've been talking about different retailers that are largely focused in the United States of America, but the fact of the matter is income is serving customers globally. Um, and what I found remarkable is the extent of business in countries like Japan, um, you know, South Africa, uh, you know, France, Germany. Um, can you just talk a little bit about that and how significant the global engagement is with, uh, with, uh, the global economy?
Speaker 3:Sure. I, and I think it's, it's one of the big, uh, unknown factors, again, with income we're in five continents, 33 different countries, uh, we're processing here in Atlanta, but we also have remote processing sites. Um, that fact processed transactions, 24 seven, and have to, um, actually, uh, Mander or conform to the different types of, of, uh, gifting type of issues, as well as self use. For instance, in Japan, really Southeast Asia, uh, not so much a gift card program because gift cards are secondary to a physical gift, but self use cards. And when I say South use cards, I'm talking in particular gaming cards. So, um, people in Japan, Southeast Asia love gaming cards. So there are self used products as well, too. And that, um, you know, are, are different than the consumer makeup in North America or the European union countries or Australia. So we've got to, uh, conform to, uh, different, uh, types of things. For instance, there are a tremendous amount of people that want to have that kind of, uh, uh, they don't want to carry cash around. They want to use a, uh, vehicle. That fact is in cash, but in fact can be redeemed as if it was cash. So in places where, uh, you have, uh, a need for that South Africa being one and other third, uh, uh, party locations that are in fact outside the normal North America, South America, European union, you might have to come up with the card more for self use than gifting. So, um, that's why we have to be very flexible on the product lineup that we have and tailor it to the market that we find ourselves. So it's a very interesting dynamic to see those. It's not just one size fits all. It's multiple decides based on it.
Speaker 4:I definitely agree with the selfies gaming cards piece, I grew up in Bangladesh, herbal country, very limited digital infrastructure. So I would find myself going to retail stores, buying gaming cards for PlayStation and going back home and using that to buy games. We didn't have the credit cards or PayPal access to do so, so very, very relevant in those parts of the world.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And I think it also speaks to the fact that, that, um, there's a tremendous need to vary the portfolio of products that you have, which you have to integrate each one of the products at the point of sale. So one of the things that we do is we create kind of a network that enables all those transactions. So, um, we don't care what the type of transaction is, and we provide that kind of a super highway that you can go to and from the it in real time. So in issues where, you know, it's, it's an India or whatever else, you have to settle those transactions on, you know, nanosecond basis because you want to get in and out of the transaction and the retailer wants it as well, too. So it's a, uh, if you look behind the curtain, there's a lot of technology that's going along, a lot of FinTech as they call it and payment processing that is required in order to make it work.
Speaker 2:Uh, I, that was something that was on my mind too. It's just really amazing and kind of backing that up for a minute it's so if I go, um, pull a card off the rack and the retailer, and, um, I go and, uh, you know, purchase that card and essentially funded at the, uh, with the retailer at their point of sale, then in income is in real time activating that card so that I could turn around seconds later and use that card to buy a good or service. And, um, just, it, it, it's a little bit mind boggling, like the number of, uh, kind of processes that have to occur in seconds to enable that, um, I've got that right,
Speaker 3:Bob. Yeah, absolutely. It's it's, it's called an ISO 85, 83 transaction. And that transaction is very similar to a credit or debit card types of transactions where the inf the digital information is captured at the point of sale process sent to either a third party processor, like in a gift card, you might have a Macy's who processes for themselves, or you might have, um, somebody that pact uses either first data or, or stored value solutions, or one of the other multiple different, uh, gift card processors. And you have to do that in real time because that retailer is not going to understand that there's delay in activating. And that consumer for sure is not going to understand that, you know, they have to wait for that transaction take place. They want that done in real time and, and in a very immediate and very, uh, seamless process, which retail, and that's why we handled, uh, gift card malls, because we want to handle the entire transaction, not only the marketing and the puller for role, uh, of racks and fixtures and collateral, uh, enhancements to it, the gifting, I call it in addition to that, they want to make sure that that transaction each and every time is completed in a very, uh, uh, quick, fast and efficient way so that they could settle, get their money. We get our money and the, uh, host, uh, location gets their money. So, uh, Starbucks, which is a huge, uh, customer for us, you know, they know that walking out the door, they can go right across the street to the Starbucks and use the card if they wanted to, for self use for gifted to somebody. And, uh, uh, you know, there'll be able to use it in real time. So, yeah. Cool. You know, there is a circadian rhythm to all the, uh, uh, transactions. We are obviously heavily, uh, wait until the fourth quarter holiday season, whether that, uh, black Friday or Christmas, or the Wally days, or any of the things that fact occur in the fourth quarter. And then the, what we call the second quarter, which is mom's, dad's Gratz as we call it Easter, that type of thing. So, uh, uh, there are this, these peaks and valleys, so to speak of, and the retail calendar year, which we gift card sales and, and processing model
Speaker 2:Causey. How many gift cards did you get for graduation? I will say I received sell payments. So gift cards, Bob, has that been something you all have noticed at all? Like, I mean, I'm sure there's been drop-off in the physical card, uh, pickup in the store is cause cause this court, and then lots of people are not going to stores or social distancing, but, you know, how's that, is there been additional pickups on the e-com side? Um, or I guess to do you look at the Venmo Zelle crowd as competitive?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, it is, but it's also people like that personal touch, but, but exponential growth on digital content cards. So in other words, a gift card in electronic form that arrives, uh, that you can download to your phone or you, or, you know, get a barcode that you can, uh, uh, have scanned at the point of sale, or you can send it to the recipient and they can print it out and bring it in as well too. Or they can go online and actually take the gift card and, and, uh, some of the security codes on it and use it right away without having to wait for the plastic to come in the mail and the collateral, uh, you know, a gift card, a holiday card, that fact, uh, houses, the gift card, the plastic gift card. So there, we've seen exponential growth in, uh, electronic, uh, and I'm sure, you know, from that standpoint, there, there are people that factor are given, uh, this out type of thing that it's an actual or Venmo type of approach to it because people just can't get out. Uh, so our business actually is surprisingly been pretty robust, uh, and it's because it's the exponential growth in the kind of digital world, that fact, and we even, you know, market to it as well, too, so that the recipient feels, geez, it's just not a piece of paper. There are there graphics to it. There are some times, uh, uh, things that fact, uh, enhance the receipt of it. Like, uh, you can send a message along with the prepaid card digital cards, so that personalizes as well, too. So, yeah, I absolutely agree if bacteria they're, they're probably the, the Venmos and that type of thing where you're getting cash, but also, uh, digital content is through the roof as a matter of fact, uh, related to it, especially if you have somebody that in fact is, um, a real, um, it's either a hobby or it's a, uh, uh, a lifelong with a wish to, you know, uh, uh, go in and do PlayStation and, and any of the other cards that factor out there in the gaming cards, because they are very, very, very, um, uh, popular in particular females. You know, a lot of people think that it's gamers, uh, that fact are males and, you know, in their teens or, or, or older actually females, uh, love, uh, gaining cards. And some of them are, are, you know, just, uh, very unusual in that fact that they literally get attached to the, the process and the game itself. So it's interesting to watch because, you know, sometimes you just think, well, who's buying that. And it turns out to be a 45 year old female as we pull back and look at who the, uh, purchasing, uh, per, uh, uh, transactional demographics are.
Speaker 2:Uh, well, cause you got a good anecdote there from your time growing up in Bangladesh with, um, uh, the gaming cards in order to engage with the financial system. Um, and it, I just want to kind of lever off of that and to this topic of, uh, we now call financial inclusion. Um, and we're, there's been a lot of focus on this, uh, topic in the FinTech industry over the last, I'd say three, three years, maybe four years. And, uh, it just continues to become ever more relevant. Uh, Bob, I know you've been in the middle of some really important conversations with, uh, state level government, federal level of government, um, with the federal reserve around, uh, how to further engage and address, uh, the financial inclusion question. Um, tell us a little bit,
Speaker 3:Yeah. And it came about by the fact that, uh, uh, we had a, uh, um, a customer that came to us as a matter of fact, the partner now, uh, and it revolved around utility bills and there are X amount of, of, uh, consumers, uh, and the company that we partner with is somebody called Paco. And we also have another program that we have, which is called vanilla direct, but with PayGo, their customer was the Southern companies, uh, Georgia power being one of them, Mississippi power, Alabama power. And there are a tremendous amount of people you don't even realize that don't are unbanked or underbanked. In other words, they don't have a bank account. They don't have a check account checking account. A normal process would be, they'd have to go to a, uh, a place where they could, uh, get a check to make their utility bills. And I'm talking about that fact on average, four times a month have to bank these small incremental payments somewhere in the neighborhood of about$10 each time. Well, actually below$10 just to keep the lights on type of thing. So PayGo works with public utilities like Georgia power. They are integrated into the meter at the location of the, the, and these are residential, uh, uh, commercial accounts. And they then monitor the usage and you can go in to a CVS or a dollar general or family dollar and make your utility payment, uh, in cash in real time at the point of sale, uh, you know, there's a fee associated with it, but it's not taken out at the point of sale. It's, it's, it's factored into the payment. And that gives a tremendous amount of, uh, of, uh, latitude and freedom for that unbanked or underbanked consumer that just can't get it. Maybe financially can't get it, but needs to have a vehicle and doesn't want to use cash because the utility doesn't pay cash. And so they have to get a check, which they have to pay for this, allows them to, uh, pay for the product real time at a, and also in a location, which they might be able to pick up, uh, you know, a loaf of bread, uh, milk. And I want to put$10 on my Georgia power bill, all in one transaction at the point of sale, seamless to the retailer and also for the consumer. And it doesn't stigmatize them as well to that, Oh, you have to go to that special counter over there and we'll take you over there and what are you going to use to pay? Um, you know, whether it's a check or cash where they can find a place that takes it. And, uh, oftentimes those retail establishments are the fastest way to get it, rather than getting a check or a money order mailing into the utility and then waiting for it to be processed. So these are faster, cheaper, and more secure transactions.
Speaker 2:Right. Right. And then certainly the midst of this global health crisis, uh, there's been these large fiscal stimulus packages that, uh, the United States governments has, um, has put into effect. And, you know, as soon as I, her, you know, started to read about the cares act, which was that first large, uh, piece of legislation, I was immediately, I was like, okay, how are they going to get all of these, all of this money to these individuals? Um, and, uh, it's Bob, I know you all spent some time trying to address that question, um, and, and support, um, the, the citizens of the U S um, Ellis about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And that's a very interesting one. And it's one that in fact continues on the, you know, we've had the first stimulus package, the cares act, which was, uh, enacted and passed by Congress and signed by president Trump, which, uh, enabled these transactions to occur. And these are, uh, depending upon if you're eligible for it and fit the criteria, uh, you would either go onto the IRS treasury website, put in your checking in and for bank account information. And those funds, those stimulus funds, uh, which are called economic impact payments, EIP would then be downloaded to your, uh, account bank account, but there's also a way to do it. Uh, and, uh, and the other alternative to that is to get a check sent to you much like many people get their state or federal income tax refunds sent by check. But that is a very long, uh, process. Uh, uh, there were approximately, uh, based on the treasury estimates and the IRS about 150 million, uh, us citizens were eligible for the economic impact payments, the IP payments, but, you know, some of them have still not received it because a paper check is a long process and they have to print out the checks and they can only do, uh, uh, you know, four to 7 million, uh, checks per week type of thing. And if you're talking about 150 million people that factor eligible for these transactions, X amount of them are gonna get it through conventional. I have a bank account, or I have a checking account, X amount are going to get it through paper checks, but where the payments industry prepaid industry comes into is the website enabling a, uh, a payment processor like ourselves, or a green dot and NetSpend, any of the prepaid products, which are called general purpose reloadable cards. These are cards that are not just done. You don't put 50 bucks on them and it's gone. You can actually reload the card. So these funds have routing information where you go on the website at the IRS, enter that information. And it says, if you had a checking or bank account, in fact, it is a checking or a bank account, a defacto product, which allows the federal government to send funds to you, uh, without having to go through the paper check, which might take literally weeks and months. In fact, some for some people now it's going into month two, and some of them won't even get it until June because there's just so many checks that can be printed on one time. And this was a Herculean effort by the treasury department, which has done a terrific job. And we've worked with them to say, uh, on the website, make a prepaid card product. One of the cards that fact, uh, might be used like a Walmart has a terrific, um, uh, general purpose reloadable card, which you can, uh, activate at a Walmart purchase and then have these funds, uh, download to at seven 11 is another one. And there were others that the, um,
Speaker 2:The Bluebird card,
Speaker 3:That card is Amex. And that's another terrific product of the Bluebird and serve card. Bluebird is sold at Walmart source, but it's an Amex based card. So any place that Amex is used and also the serve card is a terrific card, which is another general purpose reloadable card, which can receive these financial stimulus funds. If you can go to the website in, uh, enter your, uh, routing information for that particular prepaid GPR card.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's cool. Well, we got a couple of minutes left. I wanted to do a quick, uh, just round Robin on any big news that caught your attention, uh, related to the FinTech industry and the last week, um, causing maybe I'll let you start what's, uh, what's what have you seen
Speaker 4:Some big news in the crypto space? So JP Morgan to take onto Bitcoin exchanges as their clients, uh, Coinbase and Gemini trust based on the Bloomberg article, JP Morgan won't be handling any of the cryptocurrency transactions, but will more so manage the cash of the two exchanges,
Speaker 2:The U S dollar, um, depository accounts that these exchanges need to be able to, um, allow customers to access, to get. Yeah,
Speaker 4:And taking Morgan went through a good deal of due diligence to figure out whether or not these exchanges were regulated well enough to take on his clients and the consensus, what they were and how they onboard as clients or over some Atlanta based news. So feature space and Atlanta and UK based fraud protection and risk, and startup has raised a 37.4 million round, and the funds will be used to expand into new markets. Very important. Given the current climate,
Speaker 2:I was excited to see that, uh, Dave XL is the North America CEO. He's been a good friend to the Georgia FinTech Academy and leisure space. It's just an amazing company when it comes to deploying really sophisticated artificial intelligence driven models to prevent fraud and, and payment transactions. And, um, I was glad to see that they're getting, or there, um, funds and just recognition of the growth of their business. What about you Bob, in a Benny kind of that caught your attention?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I had two things. One is, is that the shift of the, uh, obvious, uh, uh, purchasing patterns for consumers, a lot more being purchased online versus brick and mortar stores. Uh, although, you know, we see them, you know, calling them and pick up at the various locations, uh, uh, curb service. So that's been a change. And then also, as I said, the world is exploded. Gaming is very, very hot right now. So the fortnights of the world calls a duty know any of the top 10, uh, and, and so on, uh, gaming, uh, products are out there so that we looked at that as, as these kinds of shifts, in addition to the regular conventional brick and mortar, which the transactions being done online, uh, I talked about, uh, you know, digital content being sent instead of a plastic card. That's been of interest in a particular, which, uh, I'm very happy about. We are working with the federal reserve bank of Atlanta on a white paper, uh, related to various payment companies like FIS by serve, um, several others that are in the space. Um, uh, and, uh, Worldpay that have products that are, uh, enable people that are unbanked or underbanked to function, you know, faster, cheaper, better, more secure than a conventional, uh, uh, paper check or cash in many instances, much more efficient than that. So we're working with them to come out with a white paper, which will feature some of these, uh, products that are in market, uh, along with retailers like Walmart, uh, as I said in the payments industry. So these are retail centric as well as, uh, payment centric, uh, vehicles. So we're very interested to get the white paper out. We've been working on for quite a while, uh, well over a year. And we think we'll have a draft in June and then, uh, published sometime, uh, in the summer, uh, which will highlight these products and then hopefully, uh, enticing and enabled other payment, uh, prepaid companies, well payments companies to enable further transactions for the unbanked or underbanked to make them feel that they're part of the, uh, financial community or, or the ability to pay with products other than cash or enabled them to, in some cases, even purchase things that they'd never be able to because of the, um, way that they pay for products right now. So those are things that are very of interest in obviously the financial stimulus finishing off of it, making sure that prepaid is at the table to be one of the vehicles that, uh, eligible recipients can receive their, uh, financial stimulus funds. Um,
Speaker 2:Great. Yeah. I have a couple of announcements. One is the FinTech generation's annual conference, uh, had led by QC FinTech out of Charlotte is going to be June 3rd and fourth. Uh, that's going to be a virtual conference this year for obvious reasons students. Uh, if you're interested in attending that I've got a ton of free passes. So just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, and I'll get you hooked up with the code so that you can go. Uh, and then additionally in June, um, the financial health network has there, is having their annual emerge conference as a virtual free conference this year, June 22nd to the 26th. They've got an amazing lineup of speakers. Uh, I was looking at it yesterday, Brett King, uh, and Margaret Keane who's the CEO of synchrony are going to be a couple of the keynotes, but that is just going to be a phenomenal event, um, and a very relevant to what we were just talking about related to financial inclusion. Um, financial health network is a very important organization in helping improve financial inclusion and the United States. Well, um, Bob, thank you so much for being a guest, thank you to income for also being a significant investor in the Georgia FinTech Academy. We really value our relationship with income and your partnership, and you've been a big part of that, and we really appreciate it and, and see, uh, congrats on graduation. Uh, and best of luck is I know you're going to enter into your job, your full-time job at E Y uh, shortly. Uh, I can't wait to hear about, um, that get started.
Speaker 3:That's great talking to you. Tell me, I learned a lot about central inclusion, glad to see that efforts are being taken place in the world. Yeah. And thank you. Crossing 10 graduations at graduating from Georgia state, and then good luck with Ernst and young. I know you'll do terrific. And, and Tammy, we, as you said, we are a very big supporter of the FinTech Academy and everything that the Georgia university system is doing to, to promote FinTech and apprenticeship programs, as well as, uh, uh, curriculum that supports the FinTech industry, the epicenter, which is right here in transactionality,
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