On Tour: Think Finance Makes the Rounds

Chase a recent $90 million credit facility score with a “Banking for the Rest of Us” media blitz trip leaking 2011 product pipeline innovation, and one thing is certain: Think Finance, a financial product developer for the unbanked and underbanked, is cranking up its scuttlebutt visibility since its 2001 debut.

One stop on its look-at-me-tour? Bank Innovation, where Chief Executive Ken Rees gave us the skinny on two of those announcements:

One, the company secured a $90 million credit facility from Victory Park Capital Advisors to help expand its existing products as well as roll out new ones. And two, its Visa prepaid debit card product, dubbed Elastic, is already undergoing product surgery. By early 2011, Elastic will incorporate a savings feature, along with financial literacy and budgeting tools. Key to rolling out Elastic’s upgrades, however, is getting consumers to actually use them.

“A savings feature isn’t enough,” says Rees. Why – no one has time, especially as the underbanked tend to be the single parent, working multiple job types, he says. To add usage motivation into the equation, Rees reveals Elastic users will be able to improve their internal credit scores by participating in the to-be-launched financial curriculum, for example. Their reward for “good” banking behavior? Financial fee rebates.

Lurking behind all the news is Think Finance’s primary pitch: to provide banks with better products for the unbanked and underbanked, a historically unprofitable market for financial instructions across the nation. Key to this objective? Offering consumers transparency and control, relays Rees.

For now, however, Think Finance has captured the hearts of two bank partners.