Mango Financial, also known as Mango Money, is a relatively new financial services business dedicated to serving the underbanked and unbanked population. Prepaid debit cards online and full menus of bank services that unbanked or underbanked customers do not generally get are offered by Mango financial. Mango Financial at the moment only has one physical location in Austin, Texas, but plans to expand to new locations.
Things just for the unbanked and underbanked
The Austin store for Mango Financial has special things available in it, although other customers can still get a prepaid debit card. My Bank Tracker talked to founder of Mango, Bertrand Sosa, who said the gateway to financial services to help those who are unbanked or underbanked manage money better is to use a company’s prepaid debit card. Mango customers can earn 5.1 percent interest with a linked savings account. Any customer of Mango that lives in Austin can pay bills, send international money, get salaries onto prepaid debit cards, withdraw cash from an ATM, use a self service kiosk to work on accounts or use debit cards with mobile opportunities to send money or balances through text.
Beginning a market with Mango money
By serving the unbanked and underbanked population, Mango Financial is going after a largely untapped market for financial services. There are 22.2 million families, or rather 20 percent of the U.S. population, considered unbanked because they don’t have a financial institution set up and used regularly, reports the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI). 22 million on top of that use things such as check cashiers and payday loan company to help with their financial services. 340 million financial service transactions like this have $ 13 billion spent to them annually.
Mango focuses on the customer experience
Mango Financial is raising the bar for unbanked and underbanked services. Triplepundit explains the Austin location is where Mango business is really working. Mango wants the Austin store to be the first of numerous. CFSA founder Jennifer Tescher explained that Mango does well because it is interested in customer experience for individuals who normally wouldn’t get the special treatment. Tescher pointed out that Mango is thinking not only about what it offers, but how it is offered. She said many young people are growing disenchanted with traditional banking, whether because of high fees or Wall Street greed. These individuals are the ones that are going to be interested in the Mango Store.
Discover more information on this subject
My Bank Tracker
mybanktracker.com/bank-news/2010/08/04/mango-financial-offers-banking-unbanked-interview-cofounder/
Center for Financial Services
cfsinnovation.com/
Triplepundit
triplepundit.com/2010/07/mango-moneys-mango-store-brings-retail-to-the-unbanked/
