What will 45 million customers get you?
A private-label deal with The Bancorp, apparently.
Move over Simple, because starting today T-Mobile, with its 45 million customers (yes, you read that number right), is offering essentially the same banking services.
This is arguably the most significant non-bank to get into banking since Walmart tried to score an industrial loan company charter back in 2007.
The deal The Bancorp scored appears to be very much like its other private-label banking arrangements. The deal has The Bancorp putting its bank charter behind T-Mobile’s new Mobile Money by T-Mobile service that the company unveiled today. The service centers on a Visa prepaid card issued by The Bancorp and produced by Blackhawk Network Inc. Customers of the T-Mobile bank will gain access to 42,000 ATMs.
Mobile Money includes an Android and iOS mobile banking app. It is unclear how this app comports with the ISIS mobile wallet initiative, of which T-Mobile USA Inc. is a founding partner.
T-Mobile is marketing this as part of its “Un-carrier” portfolio of services. The telecom company claims that Mobile Money will specifically not charge fees for retail purchase, reloading a card, monthly maintenance, or ATM withdrawals.
But arguably the most significant aspect of this deal is T-Mobile itself. T-Mobile has around 45 million customers and about 70,000 distribution locations. The company also employs about 38,000 people. Here’s how T-Mobile’s flamboyant president and chief executive, John Legere, put it:
We’ve already transformed how Americans use and pay for phones, tablets and wireless service; why stop there? Millions of Americans pay outrageous fees to check cashers, payday lenders and other predatory businesses — just for the right to use their own money. Mobile Money shifts the balance of power for T-Mobile customers and keeps more money in their pockets.
That and all those existing customers make for a potent offering from T-Mobile and The Bancorp.
Learn more about what’s next in banking at Bank Innovation 2014 on March 3-4 in Seattle. Request an invitation here.