Samsung Adds Green Dot’s Embedded Finance Platform to Digital Wallets

Digital bank Green Dot has teamed with Samsung to bolster the tech firm’s digital wallet.

The collaboration will add Green Dot’s embedded finance platform, Arc, to the Samsung wallet, giving American users access to peer-to-peer payments via the Tap to Transfer tool, Green Dot said in a Tuesday (May 6) news release.

“We are thrilled to partner with Samsung to bring seamless and affordable financial services to their Samsung Wallet users, starting with Tap to Transfer, with more value-driven and user-focused innovations to come,” Green Dot Interim President Chris Ruppel said.

“Samsung’s long history of innovation has established them as a powerful player in financial technology, and we look forward to growing the Samsung Wallet product with them through the power of our Arc platform for years to come.”

According to the release, the Arc platform features all of Green Dot’s banking and money processing capabilities, and is used by thousands of businesses in partnership with FDIC-insured banking products and tools.

“Our partnership with Samsung presents an enormous opportunity to bring convenient and instant peer-to-peer payments to Samsung’s vast user base,” said Crystal Bryant-Minter, senior vice president for money movement Green Dot.

“It also exemplifies Arc’s potential to power leading brands with seamless, secure financial experiences that deliver real value to everyday consumers.”

The partnership is happening at a time when, as PYMNTS wrote recently, embedded finance is reshaping the financial ecosystem.

Broadly defined, embedded finance pushes banking, payments and lending into the non-financial realm, where apps and online interactions with companies can include things like buy now, pay later (BNPL) and other options at the point of sale.

“The smartphone and the tablet become gateways — along with the firms’ own apps and platforms — to commerce ecosystems that keep consumers engaged and transacting, while improving the cash flows of the firms (and by extension, banks and FinTechs) with which they do business,” that report said.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS also recently explored the increasing use of digital wallets among American consumers to make cross-border transactions.

A study by PYMNTS and TerraPay, “Global Money Movement: How Digital Wallets Are Transforming Cross-Border Payments,” found that the rising popularity of digital wallets in cross-border payments presents opportunities and downsides for banks. Although consumers and businesses embrace the convenience offered by digital wallets, the report found interoperability issues that hold back seamless transactions across different platforms and countries.

“While most financial institutions anticipate an increase in cross-border digital wallet use, their current enablement lags behind traditional payment methods,” PYMNTS wrote.

“The study also uncovered a divide in how banks view FinTechs, with some seeing them as competitors while a growing number recognize the potential for partnerships to enhance their cross-border payment capabilities and expand their reach.”