CardWorks and Merrick Bank Complete GreenSky® Loan Participation Purchase and Flow Relationship

WOODBURY, N.Y., May 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CardWorks, Inc. ("CardWorks") announced that in conjunction with its equity investment in GreenSky Holdings, LLC ("GreenSky"), its wholly-owned subsidiary Merrick Bank ("Merrick") has completed the purchase of approximately $500 million in GreenSky® Program home improvement loan participations and entered into a forward flow agreement to purchase additional GreenSky® Program home improvement loan participations.

A Consortium of institutional investors led by Sixth Street and including KKR, Bayview Asset Management, and CardWorks acquired GreenSky from Goldman Sachs on March 15, 2024. The GreenSky® equity investment, loan participation purchase, and forward flow agreement are part of a broader CardWorks strategic relationship with GreenSky. 

Dan Pillemer, President & Chief Executive Officer of CardWorks, said, "We are excited about the opportunity to partner with GreenSky, which we view as a best-in-class home improvement platform. In addition to the investment and participation purchase, we look forward to exploring broader opportunities for Merrick and GreenSky to work together in the future."

Pillemer continued, "CardWorks recently launched its Flow Lending business, focused on identifying high-quality, differentiated lending platforms as forward flow partners. Given Merrick's deep experience in prime and non-prime credit risk management, combined with our focus on compliance and partner oversight, we are well positioned as a trusted funding partner with access to deposits. GreenSky is Merrick's first forward flow partnership."

"The GreenSky investment and partnership follows our acquisition of Dataline Systems, LLC in early 2023. The GreenSky transaction demonstrates CardWorks' commitment to pursuing inorganic growth opportunities that expand and diversify our business and is in line with CardWorks' long-term strategic vision," said Don Berman, Founder & Executive Chairman of CardWorks. "CardWorks is a disciplined company with a strong balance sheet and capital levels. We will continue to pursue other inorganic opportunities to grow the business."

"GreenSky is thrilled by the partnership with Merrick Bank, which demonstrates robust demand for our assets. Our strong balance sheet liquidity and funding diversification enable us to continue delivering on our mission to provide exceptional value to merchants, helping their businesses grow, while delighting their consumer customers," said Tim Kaliban, CEO of GreenSky.

About CardWorks and Merrick Bank
CardWorks is a leading credit and payments company and a people-centric, compliance-focused organization enabled by data and technology. For more information about CardWorks, please visit: www.cardworks.com

Merrick Bank, a wholly-owned bank subsidiary of CardWorks, is an expert in non-prime consumer lending (having helped more than 10 million customers) as well as merchant payment processing (servicing over 100,000 merchants and $60 billion in payment volume per year). For more information about Merrick Bank, please visit www.merrickbank.com

About GreenSky
GreenSky, LLC, headquartered in Atlanta, is a leading technology company Powering Commerce at the Point of Sale® for a growing ecosystem of merchants, consumers, banks and institutional investors. GreenSky's highly scalable, proprietary and patented technology platform enables merchants to offer frictionless promotional payment options to consumers, driving increased sales volume and accelerated cash flow. The GreenSky® Program is operated on behalf of, and financing is provided by, federally insured, federal or state chartered financial institutions, which leverage GreenSky's technology to provide loans to super-prime and prime consumers nationwide. Since the GreenSky® Program's inception, nearly 6 million consumers have financed more than $50 billion of commerce using GreenSky's real time "apply and buy" technology. For more information visit www.greensky.com.

SOURCE CardWorks