Good day, and welcome to the Green Dot Corporation Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Alison Lubert, Vice President of Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Today, we are discussing Green Dot's second quarter 2021 financial and operating results. Following remarks, we'll open the call for questions. Our most recent earnings release that accompanies this call and webcast can be found at ir.greendot.com. As a reminder, our comments may include forward-looking statements and expectations regarding future results and performance. Please refer to the cautionary language in the earnings release and in Green Dot's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q, for additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. During the call, we'll make reference to our financial measures that do not conform with generally accepted accounting principles. For the sake of clarity, unless otherwise noted, all numbers we talk about today will be on a non-GAAP basis. Information may be calculated differently than similar non-GAAP data presented by other companies. Quantitative reconciliation of our non-GAAP financial information to the directly comparable GAAP financial information appears in today's press release. The content of this call is property of the Green Dot Corporation and is subject to copyright protection. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Dan.

Thank you, Ali, greetings everyone and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to share the results of our second quarter, which significantly exceeded expectations. All three of our reporting segments outperformed our internal forecast. Some timing considerations also contributed to the Q2 upside. Our consolidated non-GAAP revenue grew 19% to $358 million, and we delivered EBITDA of $63 million and non-GAAP EPS of $0.68. This continues to be a remarkable year of unprecedented circumstances, including shifting taxes and filing deadlines, stimulus, new customer behaviors and trends, and other dynamics that impacted our industry across the board. The good news for us is that when normalizing for those factors and stripping our results down to the core fundamentals, the second quarter showed ongoing strength and momentum and reinforced our confidence in our operations and strategy moving forward. Last year, we said our intention is to bring together a highly capable leadership team, streamline and strengthen our platforms, and deliver exceptional digital banking and payment solutions to our customers and partners. We shared our belief that these initiatives would take some time to bear fruit. As evidenced by our Q2 financial results, our plan is working. We'll be raising our annual guidance slightly based on these results, which Jess will expand on shortly. Before I pass it over to him, I'd like to take the opportunity to share a few highlights from the quarter. As a reminder, we now break down our numbers into three key segments: first, our consumer segment, which includes Green Dot's retail and direct businesses; second, our B2B segment, which includes BAS, or banking platform services, and our employer business branded as Rapid; and third, our money movement segment, which includes our tax processing business, TPG, and our money processing network also known as Green Dot Network, or GDN. Starting with our consumer segment, this area of our business, when normalized for stimulus, continues to deliver solid year-on-year growth. Our consumer segment overall has nearly 4 million active accounts and close to 1 million direct deposit accounts. Although we experienced a decline in active accounts at 3%, which we believe is due to stimulus timing, we saw purchase volume up 5% and our direct deposit accounts increased 2% year-over-year. One of the most meaningful and exciting achievements in this segment was the launch of GO2bank in retail. This clearly illustrates Green Dot's power and competitive advantages when combining our best-in-class products with the tremendous reach and capabilities of our retail network. Now our top-rated digital bank, designed for the hundred million plus Americans living paycheck to paycheck, is showcased and available in more than 40,000 retail locations nationwide. GO2bank is now in Walmart, Dollar General, 7-Eleven, and Family Dollar, and we will be aggressively adding to that list in the second half of the year. Our retail network is unsurpassed in its reach with more than 90,000 locations nationwide. This is more than all the bank branches in America combined. The ability to display and market our GO2bank products across this vast retail network is a powerful competitive advantage for growing our business. It builds brand awareness, trust, and loyalty. We also announced that Walmart MoneyCard accounts are now demand deposit accounts, giving Walmart's million-plus MoneyGuard customers access to more traditional banking and checking account features, and we have been pleased to see our consumer-friendly overdraft being used by more and more customers at no charge. In fact, in the second quarter, 67% of GO2bank customers who use our overdraft feature did so fee-free. Tools like this can be a lifeline to customers who would otherwise be unable to cover critical expenses. It is our belief that giving customers flexibility and control by encouraging financial accountability leads to the best outcomes for customers. And that's exactly what our consumer-friendly overdraft is designed to do. Wrapping up the consumer segment, you may have seen we recently announced new partnerships with Experian and Finicity, which are aimed at helping consumers prove their credit and overall financial situations using more seamless and secure tools and channels. These solutions illustrate our commitment to understanding and addressing the real needs, pain points, and barriers affecting the hundred million plus Americans living paycheck to paycheck and giving them seamless and intuitive tools and features that offer them a leg up. Moving over to B2B, which includes Banking-as-a-Service, or banking platform services and our employer platform Rapid. We made some notable strides in this segment as well. Starting with banking platform services, Green Dot partners with some of the most highly respected and innovative brands in the world, such as Apple, Amazon, Uber, Intuit, Walmart, and Kabbage, to design and deliver seamless banking payment solutions to their customers. In the second quarter, Kabbage for American Express announced the much-anticipated launch of its new business checking account, which is powered by Green Dot. Kabbage Checking gives small to medium-sized business owners fee-free and frictionless business checking account services. We are committed to serving and innovating on behalf of this important customer segment and are thrilled to be partnering with companies like Kabbage and others to power the millions of small and medium-sized companies that are a growth engine for our economy and will benefit from better financial tools and services designed to meet their needs. Early results for Kabbage Checking and our other small business products show demand for these types of solutions is strong, and we are excited to continue investing and innovating in this space. We are making great progress with our partners as we continue to invest in and strengthen these relationships. Now over to our employer platform business branded as Rapid. This business saw solid growth in Q2. Revenues were up 29% year-over-year, and quarterly actives were up 20% year-over-year. We had 348 employers during the quarter, bringing our total to nearly 5,200 small and medium-sized businesses. This was a 9% year-on-year increase compared to 2020. I'll wrap with our third segment money movement, comprised of our money processing and tax processing businesses. We saw higher than expected results in Q2 while making progress on a number of important milestones. Starting with money processing, also referred to as the Green Dot Network or GDN. We launched four new GDN partners, including Fair Fintech, LendUp, Dabble, and Greenwood, and contracted an additional two new programs with current partners, PayActiv and ADP during the second quarter. We also partnered with PayNearMe to make it easier for millions of Walmart customers to pay bills using cash at Walmart stores. We plan to extend this convenience to more major retailers in our network in coming quarters. GDN’s barcode reload and payment product known as eCash has seen a 32% year-on-year growth due to new partner launches and retailer footprint expansion. We expanded GDN fraud control capabilities by introducing geolocation capture on reloads. We are consistently rolling out new and enhanced integrations with some of the largest retailers in the world. We will continue adding solutions like PayNearMe, eCash, and others, further increasing the value and usefulness of the Green Dot network. Now looking at our tax processing business. Before jumping in to the quarter's performance, we are very pleased to share that the DOJ has approved our acquisition of Republic Bank's Tax Refund Business, and we're working toward a Q3 closing. As we shared earlier, this acquisition presents strong synergies and significant growth opportunities, particularly as we prepare to introduce new products to tax processing clients. It also adds further scale and diversity to our strong tax business, including tax-related underwriting and lending capabilities, while strengthening our core tax solutions platform and setting us up for long-term growth and success. We expect the TR's business to deliver incremental EBITDA of $13 million to $16 million in 2022, with additional synergies in 2023 and beyond. We appreciate the support of our regulators in this process and will keep you updated on the transaction as we are working hard to close as quickly as possible. As for our Q2 results for TPG, it’s important to note how shifts in tax filing deadlines and other dynamics and delays in 2020 and 2021 impacted volumes each quarter. Setting these quarterly shifts in volumes aside, we expect results for this part of the business to be relatively flat for the full year compared to 2020. I’ll wrap this segment by acknowledging how much effort has gone into strengthening and enhancing our tax processing business and platforms by our IT group and the team at TPG. We are launching new products and services aimed at helping the 30,000-plus tax preparers who rely on us to better serve their clients. The investments we made to sustain and bolster this business will benefit us significantly in years to come, particularly with the acquisition of TRS, which expands our reach and capabilities, and ultimately our bottom line. To summarize, as I've said before, 2021 is a year of both investment and growth. We are pleased with our growth in the second quarter, and it affords us the ability to reinvest back into areas that present significant opportunity and potential like GO2bank. This has been a great quarter, marked by stronger-than-anticipated results and progress on a number of important milestones. We are becoming a leaner, stronger, more focused company. There's still a lot of work ahead to capitalize on the plethora of large-scale opportunities we are pursuing. However, the evidence continues to show that our dramatic turnaround is materializing, and it is exciting to see the momentum build and our hard work and new mindset begin to pay off. With that, I'll pass it over to Jess to give you a breakdown of our numbers.

Thanks, Dan. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll cover our strong second quarter results and provide thoughts around financial performance for the remainder of the year, including raising our guidance for both revenue and earnings. In the second quarter, all three of our reporting segments delivered year-over-year revenue growth. We saw tax refund volumes rebound from a significantly delayed tax season in Q1. All in, our consolidated non-GAAP revenue grew 19% to $358 million, which was an acceleration from the 9% growth in Q1. Illustrating our emphasis on maintaining a fixed cost structure, contribution margins were exceptionally strong, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA of $63 million and non-GAAP EPS of $0.68. Our results for the quarter exceeded the guidance we provided during our last earnings call, and I'd like to spend a moment covering some of the moving pieces. The beat on our adjusted EBITDA guidance can be broken down into two primary categories. The first is better-than-anticipated performance of $9 million. We have been and continue to be cautious with our guidance in light of the lingering effects of COVID on the economy. Certainly, the economy is more stable now than it was a year ago; however, we are still experiencing a very dynamic environment and therefore forecasting all the potential variables has been a challenge. Our consumer services and B2B services segments each performed better than we anticipated, due to strong gross dollar volume growth normalizing for stimulus and a better margin flow through on the related revenue. The second category driving the material upside in Q2 was the timing benefit of roughly $12 million. The tax season recovered faster than we anticipated, and $4 million of the forecasted earnings from our tax processing business shifted from Q3 to Q2, and portions of our growth-oriented investments, such as marketing spend and hiring plans to support our new modern banking platform, were pushed into the second half of 2021. Turning to liquidity, we continue to produce substantial cash flow, generating $119 million of operating cash flow year-to-date, down year-over-year due in large part to the timing of corporate tax payments. Our cash at the holding company at quarter-end was $172 million. Our cash balance and the strength of our operating cash flow, together with our $100 million revolver available to us, provide us with sufficient liquidity to invest in our strategic initiatives. As Dan mentioned, we received approval from the DOJ to proceed with our acquisition of the tax processing business from Republic Bancorp. We expect to fund that acquisition with a combination of our revolver and cash on the balance sheet. Focusing on our segment results, in our consumer services segment, gross dollar volume and the number of active accounts declined year-over-year by 6% and 3% respectively. These declines were largely due to very challenging comparisons created by the timing of stimulus programs in 2020 versus 2021. Excluding stimulus funds in 2020, gross dollar volume in our Consumer Services segment increased 9% year-over-year. Lastly, our direct deposit actives increased 2%. Despite the gross dollar volume headwind from stimulus, revenue in our Consumer Services segment grew 12% on higher purchase volume of 5%, largely attributable to stimulus funds received in the first quarter of 2021 being spent in the second quarter of 2021 and organic growth from products in both our retail and direct divisions and the continued rollout of our new overdraft protection program. To reiterate my remarks on prior earnings calls, the impressive performance in this segment is a stark contrast to the declining revenue growth rates over the last few years. While stimulus has undoubtedly provided a tailwind, our strategic focus is creating organic momentum. Expenses in our Consumer Services segment increased year-over-year, and our margin declined because of higher third-party call center support costs to meet the increased demand in our customer service center as a result of the federal relief programs. As I mentioned on our last call, improving our customer's overall experience and building a service infrastructure capable of handling a larger ecosystem is one of our growth-oriented investments in 2021 and will be a focal point in the second half. Expenses also increased due to the timing of marketing expenses to promote our recently launched GO2bank product and growth in transaction losses due to the year-over-year increase in purchase volume. Overall, our growth-oriented investments resulted in the consumer segment profit declining by $3 million or 4% as we prioritize investments in customer experience and marketing. In our B2B Services segment, gross dollar volume and purchase volume grew year-over-year by 43% and 3% respectively, while the number of active accounts declined 4%. Like our Consumer Services segment, we believe that the decline in our active accounts was driven by the timing of stimulus funds. The growth in gross dollar volume is a result of continued growth in our BaaS programs and employer programs, even in the face of year-over-year headwinds from stimulus in the second quarter of 2020. Overall, segment revenue grew 47%. Like our Consumer segment, our B2B segment experienced heightened transaction losses associated with GDV and purchase volume growth. We experienced an increase in processing expenses in line with corresponding revenue increases in our BaaS partner fees and interchange revenue. Overall, our B2B segment profit grew $2 million or 11%. As expected, the segment margin declined year-over-year consistent with Q1 from BaaS partner arrangements that contain a fixed profit. Revenue in our Money Movement segment was up 1% year-over-year, driven by the rebound in the tax season. You may recall that the number of tax refunds processed in the first quarter of 2021 was down year-over-year by 23% due to the significant delay in the tax season. In Q2, our tax refunds processed were up 118%, and on a year-to-date basis, our first half volumes have recovered to flat. The number of cash transfers we processed in the quarter were down 18%. As we discussed in our last earnings call, we have a headwind associated with our decision not to renew a significant reload partner in Q4 2020. However, the lost volume and revenue came at a low margin, so the bottom line impact has been muted. Overall, segment profit increased $10 million or 37%. Now, I would like to focus on guidance for the remainder of 2021. We are raising our non-GAAP revenue guidance in light of our Q2 performance and early trends we are seeing in Q3 to a range of $1.33 billion to $1.35 billion. We are also raising our guidance range for adjusted EBITDA to $215 million to $225 million and our non-GAAP EPS range to $2.13 to $2.27. Based on the midpoint of our adjusted EBITDA range, the implied second half earnings is approximately $84 million. As we have shared in our last two earnings calls, we believe strategic opportunities exist in 2021 to reinvest profit upside back into our modern banking platform, customer service, and GO2bank. Additionally, the timing matters I discussed previously shifted $12 million of profits from the second half to the first half. Keep in mind that we expect our corporate and other costs to increase in the second half of the year as we invest in our new modern banking platform. We expect this investment to begin delivering a payback in 2022 with a reduction in processing expenses, which have become more substantial in 2023. We're excited about the progress we're making and the milestones we've achieved thus far. The reaccelerating top line is a positive indicator that we are on the right track. We are committed and focused on our growth-oriented investments in 2021 and believe it will deliver compelling expected returns. These investments, coupled with our roadmap for product innovation, will help us further our mission of being the go-to financial partner for hardworking Americans and small businesses to empower their financial well-being. With that, I'll turn it over to the operator for questions.

And our first question will come from Bob Napoli of William Blair. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Congratulations. Nice quarter, Dan and Jess, good to see.

Thanks, Bob.

So just – I mean, a lot of things to dig into there. But in the B2B services, I think that's where you had the largest upside relative to our expectations. Can you maybe give a little more color on – I mean, the BaaS partners and the revenue growth there? And what kind of – how you retold that business, if you would?

Yes. I can comment, Bob, this is Jess, on the performance and the revenue side. So first and foremost, you can see that there was really strong gross dollar volume growth in the quarter, up 43% in the B2B side of the house. So that's – that GDV growth is coming largely from continued expansion of our some of our mature portfolios and programs with some help from some of the newer programs we launched in late Q4, but predominantly, it's our mature programs continuing to ramp. Even with the headwind on stimulus, we still see a large influx of GDV coming through some of the programs being used as a P2P platform. Others just continue to expand their active accounts and their marketing campaigns, et cetera. And that's partially offset by some headwinds from some of the programs that were impacted by COVID starting in late Q2, early Q3. So all in sort of organic growth coming from those mature programs with some help from the newer programs.

Okay, thank you. Then maybe just to follow-up on GO2bank, the Walmart Money Card, I mean, the conversion of that to DDA accounts, how meaningful seems like a real shift in the strategy there, that could be meaningful. I'd love a little more color on that.

Sure Bob, on that – the switch of getting the Walmart Money Cards to demand deposit accounts, that's now clearly it's a bank issued account, it's no longer a prepaid card. With that, the very consumer-friendly overdraft products that we've created and have launched, now Walmart can extend that to their cardholders. It's really a sign of a few things. One, it's a sign of the true value of the program that we have. Walmart is very protective of their customers and really going to be rolling out products that serve them well and that customers embrace. I think it's a strong indicator of the product we've got out there. Although 67% of the overdrafts are fee-free because customers can cure them without a fee, it is still a profitable program. So it benefits both us and Walmart by having the Walmart Money Card customers use it. More importantly, it demonstrates the wonderful relationship we're building with the new financial services team at Walmart and how we are bringing, not just Walmart, but all of our partners real solutions to help solve the pain points and challenges of working Americans in this country.

And the GO2bank?

GO2bank is doing really well. We don't share specific metrics on that, but we still categorize it under the consumer segment along with the Green Dot products that we have out at retail. The power of our consumer segment and our ability to build brand awareness on GO2bank is compelling when you see that card on display inside a retail store. Along with direct marketing through TV or online, we are going to build an extremely powerful brand with GO2bank.

Thank you, Dan. Appreciate it.

Yeah. Thank you, Bob.

The next question comes from Andrew Jeffrey of Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi, Dan. Fortunately, I've got a cup of coffee sitting next to me here, so we're all good.

That's great. Thank you.

I think it's a compelling neo bank story and more focused than peers. Can you elaborate a little bit on the GO2bank unit economics? I think you've mentioned in the past perhaps a six-month break-even, and maybe if you could just elaborate on that a little bit. I just wonder, are we at a point this year to where perhaps the break-even gets extended as you invest for share, and then they come back down in 2022 and 2023, just kind of thinking about the investments and how we should frame those up from a unit perspective?

Sure. And I'll speak to just the profitability of the entire program, it’s nuanced because we had to ‘prime the pump’ to get a certain base of customers that will then be able to generate free cash flow to fund ongoing marketing. On a unit basis, when we bring a customer on direct deposit with GO2bank and also offer them access to our secure credit card, we look at the average unit economics per customer as $15 to $20 a month of contribution. So even cutting it conservatively to $200 a year of contribution per direct deposit customer, if we get a million of them, that's an incremental $200 million a year contribution for the company. The market is available, and we believe that if we spend wisely, we will acquire a certain number of direct deposit customers.

Yes. It does help. I think that's really important just to understand. And just as a follow-up…

Yes, go ahead.

Just as my follow-up, there's been some chatter and I deny them, I mean, I know the Fed is kind of viewing two of the Durbin amendment that are ready to, but I don’t think there is much discussion of a Durbin carve-out for prepaid or for smaller debit issuers. Do you have any view on risk to debit exempt interchange?

I don't have any view on that right now. I see the same kind of chatter that's out there. We're well below the asset size base to maintain our Durbin exemption.

Got it. I appreciate it. Thanks.

Yes. Thank you, Andrew.

The next question comes from Ramsey El-Assal of Barclays. Please go ahead.

Hi, Dan, just thanks for taking my question this evening. In the consumer segment, there was more revenue per active account versus our model, and I know there's a lot of moving parts, especially with stimulus, but I'm just wondering if you can comment on that metric over time, kind of going forward. Should we, shall I read that as increased engagement? Should we think of that as kind of continuing northward?

Ramsey, I’ll give you the optimistic CEO answer and then Jess, you can see if you want to run through it all. Yes, Ramsey, our current base is 4 million active accounts in our consumer base. Our percentage of direct deposit customers as our total active accounts will increase, and direct deposit customers will naturally generate more revenue.

Okay. I guess, along similar lines, can you talk about the product pipeline with GO2bank? I think there's a conception that you might add functionality to that platform over time. Is that still a roadmap? Should we expect some kind of product announcements associated with GO2bank in the near or medium term?

Yes, you should expect we'll be adding feature functionality and benefits to the product continually. So, during the second half of this year, we will add new features. Our focus is on creating a product that serves the needs of working Americans, and we'll be looking for solutions that really benefit our customer base.

Great. Terrific. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you.

The next question comes from Andrew Schmidt of Citi. Please go ahead.

Hey, Dan. Hey, Jess. Hope you’re doing well. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to actually dig in along the same lines of the last question, but more around direct deposit active account growth. Obviously this quarter, it’s a tough comp from an active account perspective, but between adding more distribution, improving product functionality, and offering things like overdraft, which can help customer acquisition, retention, what’s the right way to think about direct deposit active account growth over the intermediate term?

When you ask about—what's the right way to think about direct deposit accounts, we intend to see consistent quarter-on-quarter growth in our direct deposit customer base. We expect to see growth in direct deposit customers each quarter, and there is a tremendous market available. If we spend the marketing dollars wisely, we will acquire customers.

Okay. That’s helpful. So consistently positive direct deposit growth?

Yes, that's correct. Historically, after Q1 from strong acquisition, there has been a drop off, but then we expect to see a continuous increase from there. The total available market is tremendous, and we believe we can maintain growth as long as our product is sound and customer service is good.

Got it. Thank you for that. Just for my follow-up, modern banking platform, hopefully – I was hoping you could give us an update on where we stand with that, you selected vendors where the implementation started. And then when we should expect the bulk of the work to be complete in 2022?

Yes. We have selected our software vendors and we're working with them. We're looking at Q1 or Q2 of 2022 to expect the bulk of the work to be done. By the end of the year, we will begin to have products active on our new platform.

Yes. Our intention is to have substantial completion in Q2 of 2022.

Got it. Thank you, Dan and Jess. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Andrew.

The next question comes from Steven Kwok of KBW. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Just first one I have was just around how we should think about the cadence between the third quarter and fourth quarter, given that there were some things that were shifted between third and second quarter. If you could help, that would be great.

Sure, Steven. From a revenue perspective, we expect Q3 and Q4 to be up high single-digits year-over-year. From an EBITDA standpoint, we talked about an implied $84 million in the second half, and I'd anticipate some being evenly spread across the two quarters. You should expect sequential decreases in EBITDA as we lose the stimulus benefits moving forward.

Got it. That’s helpful. And then Dan, can you talk about like the investment opportunities and stuff? Could you just talk about ROI’s you’re seeing and has that changed since your good time at Green Dot?

Yes, when we talk about investment opportunities, we are looking at investing in marketing dollars to drive GO2bank customer acquisition. Our return on investment there is very strong. We will be aggressive with those dollars while also making investments in internal systems and operational improvements, such as the modern banking platform and customer service tools.

Understood. Thanks for taking the questions.

Absolutely. Thank you, Steven.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Dan Henry for any closing remarks.

Yes. Everyone, I just want to thank you all for the time and the interest here. I'm very, very proud of what the team has accomplished since my arrival. I think that this quarter illustrates that some of the fundamentals we're putting in place are really beginning to take root. Excited about what we delivered this quarter and excited as this journey continues. Thank you all.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.