Green Dot and PayPal have announced an agreement that will allow U.S. consumers to load money directly to their PayPal accounts using Green Dot’s MoneyPak. This will enable people to shop anywhere PayPal is accepted without the need for a bank account or credit card. READ MORE

We mentioned earlier this week that copies of many of the presentations from the recent Chicago Fed Payments 2009 conference are now available online.

One of the more interesting presentations is the Overview of Green Dot presentation by Steve Streit, CEO. It includes a description of how Green Dot is three companies in one: a retail packaged goods provider, a financial services provider, and the Green Dot reload network (MoneyPak).

Another interesting presentation is Payment Strategy at Home Depot by Dwaine Kimmet, VP Home Depot Financial Services. Kimmet clearly lays out the retailer's payment priorities - and frustrations with increased interchange costs saying that, since 2002, Home Depot "has not seen value created by these new, higher fees." He goes on to describe the private label card approach that Home Depot's adopted which has become its lowest cost credit tender type.

There are lots of other interesting presentations from this recent conference - available here.

Citi and Green Dot have announced "a strategic alliance to provide Citi-issued general purpose gift cards and reloadable prepaid debit cards to consumers. In addition, Citi Cards’ retail business partners will have the opportunity to offer co-branded versions of these prepaid products to their customers. With this partnership, Green Dot further expands its national retail distribution of prepaid products." READ MORE

Chase Paymentech and Green Dot Corporation have announced an agreement to offer Chase Paymentech-processed merchants an alternative cash payment solution that gives them the ability to accept cash transactions through their existing online and phone interfaces by accepting Green Dot’s MoneyPak as a form of payment.

Green Dot has announced an agreement with RentPayment, an electronic payments processor in the multifamily industry, that enables customers of RentPayment to have access to convenient cash payment methods using Green Dot's MoneyPak.

MasterCard Worldwide has announced a strategic agreement with Green Dot Corporation, operator of the Green Dot Network, to expand the ability of consumers to reload prepaid cards enrolled in the MasterCard rePower point of sale load network at retail locations throughout the United States.

Green Dot Corporation has announced an agreement with CardinalCommerce to "enable eCommerce merchants for the first time to receive online payments from a largely untapped consumer segment: the financially underserved community of more than 80 million "cash consumers" nationwide who do not have access to traditional bank accounts, credit cards or other financial tools."

Green Dot Network has announced it has reached a new high of 109 prepaid card programs reloading on its network as of January 31. These programs include cards issued from multiple banks under the MasterCard, Visa and Discover Network brands.

Green Dot Corporation has announced that it is offering "through its retail network the first reloadable prepaid card to launch on the Discover Network. Customers will be able to use the card to purchase goods and
services at over 4 million merchant locations where Discover is accepted. Like other Green Dot products, the Green Dot Discover Network prepaid card can be reloaded via the Green Dot Financial Network -- one of the nation's largest retail-based cash acceptance networks."