Green Dot among first new issuers on Google Wallet

According to Google Inc.'s corporate blog, prepaid card provider Green Dot Corp. is one of the first card issuers to have a place on the search engine's new cloud-based mobile wallet. As part of opening Google Wallet to all card issuers by moving the service to the cloud, Google is asking issuers to provide "card art" to differentiate accounts inside the wallets. Green Dot, along with Barclaycard US (the card unit of Barclays PLC) and Silicon Valley Bank, was cited by Google as among the first issuers to provide card art for the new wallet.

In the Sept. 13, 2012, post, Frank T. Young, Commerce Business Development Manager at Google Wallet, said by moving Google Wallet to the cloud, "we have greatly simplified the way that card issuers integrate with it." The process of direct integration by each issuer into Google Wallet was seen as one hindrance to expanding the number of issuers whose cards could be used by the pre-cloud version of the wallet. Citibank N.A. was the only card issuer on that version of Google Wallet.

Young said integration that could take "many months, cost millions, and require complex orchestration among many parties has been reduced to a few simple steps." The two steps provided issuers in the blog are:

1. Supply card art for Google Wallet 2. Add a button to issuer websites via Google's Save to Wallet API for Payment Cards. This application protocol interface allows customers to easily save issuer-specific payment cards to Google Wallet by clicking on the website buttons.

Google announced on Aug. 1, 2012, that it was moving the wallet to the cloud. Since then, usage of the wallet had doubled, according to Young. "Consumers have immediately grasped the benefit of being able to use any card when shopping in-store and online," he said.

Green Dot officially became a card issuer when it finalized its acquisition of Bonneville Bancorp. in November 2011.

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