MEA Financial and Pinwheel to Offer Credential-less Deposit Switching

As banks grapple with driving new account activation and reducing first-year churn, capturing deposits presents a way for financial institutions to remove the barriers responsible for half of the drop-off along the traditional consumer journey, preventing them from achieving account primacy.

Many customers do not finish the account setup process when faced with the prompt to recall and enter their payroll credentials, a pain point Pinwheel eliminates with its two-click switch. Deploying Pinwheel Prime has a marked effect on a bank's primacy. In a recent survey, 72% of consumers would be more likely to make a bank their primary bank if it offered Pinwheel Prime at acquisition.

Pinwheel Prime is the industry's only comprehensive direct deposit switching solution, uniquely covering 100% of the US workforce receiving direct deposit. Prime is also the industry's first and only entirely credential-less deposit-switching experience, driving the industry's highest conversion rate.

Once banks use Pinwheel Prime to capture a customers' direct deposit, they can utilize Verify to access verified income and employment data. As the first Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) in our space, Pinwheel's Verify uniquely supports credit decisioning use cases, and allows financial institutions to give consumers innovative lending options. With consumer insights unlocked by Verify's real-time access to income and employment data, banks are offering customers more personalized products and services that proactively fit their financial needs.

"Partnering with the industry's most advanced and comprehensive deposit-switching solution underscores our commitment to equipping our clients with cutting-edge technology to drive growth and customer satisfaction," said Ed Rhea, CEO at MEA Financial. "Pinwheel's ability to help financial institutions capture more deposits, create stickier relationships with their customers, and ultimately drive customer primacy made the partnership a natural fit. Pinwheel undeniably leads the market in terms of ease, coverage, and security."

"In partnering with MEA, Pinwheel is helping consumers access the latest in seamless, digital banking experiences," said Brian Karimi-Pashaki, Partnerships Lead of Pinwheel. "Consumers will be able to move freely about the financial system and switch funds to their institution of choice. Financial institutions will be able to activate more customers and increase a customer's lifetime value by over 14%."

Now, over 1,000 banks and credit unions using MEA Financial can offer customers the same digital experience already trusted by Pinwheel customers like Cash App, Citizens Bank, and American Express. This partnership not only simplifies direct deposit switching for financial institutions, it enhances their ability to deliver personalized, real-time services that meet the evolving needs of their customers. As a result, MEA Financial's clients can expect to see increased customer retention, improved account activation rates, and a stronger competitive edge in the financial services industry.

About Pinwheel

Pinwheel helps banks win primacy by making switching direct deposits easy. Through exclusive and first-of-its-kind partnerships with payroll providers, Pinwheel can instantly authenticate consumers without credentials. This new product provides best-in-class conversion, greater security, better insights, and a seamless UX for switching direct deposits at the world's leading financial institutions. The Pinwheel Prime platform has enterprise-grade security protocols to power connections to over 1,800 platforms (covering up to 100% of US workers paid via direct deposit) and over 1.5 million employers. From that point of connectivity, leading fintechs and financial institutions (such as Block's Cash App, Citizens Bank, Acorns, Credit Karma, and more) leverage us to power direct deposit switching, earned wage access, income & employment verification, and build innovative new products. Pinwheel is trusted and funded with $77M by top-tier investors such as GGV, Coatue, First Round Capital, and more.

About MEA Financial

MEA provides cutting-edge software and marketing solutions to its client base of financial institutions around the nation, focusing on technology options that will result in revenue growth and improve customer satisfaction. Its suite of products includes digital solutions like UniFI Digital Banking and support for mobile banking across all operating systems, as well as telephone banking and online account opening along with other software tools for financial institutions.

SOURCE Pinwheel