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It has been a chilly Spring in the US, but one bird is chirping. American Express and Walmart said on Tuesday that their Bluebird venture for financial services now has federal deposit insurance. The two teamed up last October to offer prepaid debit cards and cheque services targeting low-income households that are frustrated with the fees on traditional bank accounts or not using them at all.
今年美國的春天有點冷，但有一只鳥在啼鳴。美國運通公司(Amex)和沃爾瑪(Walmart)周二表示，他們共同推出的藍鳥(Bluebird)金融服務，如今已有聯邦存款保險。兩家企業于去年10月聯手推出預付借記卡和支票服務，針對那些對傳統銀行賬戶的收費不滿、甚至根本不用此類服務的低收入家庭。
The FDIC insurance opens up areas of growth for the fledgling service - people who were uneasy or limited without the federal backing. Many of Walmart’s shoppers are military personnel, veterans and Social Security recipients. Direct deposit of government cheques can only be done with FDIC insured accounts. The insurance also puts Bluebird on equal footing with traditional banks as well as Netspend and Green Dot which offer FDIC-insurance on Visa and MasterCard-branded pre-paid cards. By the end of January, Bluebird had more than 575,000 accounts with $275m of funds.
美國聯邦存款保險公司(FDIC)的保險為這項方興未艾的服務開啟了成長空間——沒有聯邦保險的支持，人們會感到不安或受限。在沃爾瑪的顧客群中，許多是軍人、退伍軍人和領取社會保障人士。直接入賬的政府付款只能打入有FDIC保險的賬戶。這一保險也讓藍鳥卡與其他傳統銀行、以及Netspend和Green Dot這樣的公司有了平等競爭的地位，這些公司提供有FDIC保險的Visa和萬事達(MasterCard)品牌預付借記卡。截止1月底，藍鳥卡已擁有超過57.5萬個賬戶，資金總額達2.75億美元。
Walmart unsuccessfully tried to become a bank several years ago. For Bluebird, Amex issues the cards and Walmart distributes them. The FDIC insurance kicks in because Amex uses accounts at Wells Fargo, an FDIC member bank, for Bluebird’s registered customers. Revenue comes from merchant transaction fees (and perhaps Walmart can cut its own transaction costs – the financial terms with Amex were never disclosed), and a few other fees. Bluebird does not charge overdraft, monthly, activation or minimum amount fees.
沃爾瑪幾年前嘗試銀行業務沒有成功。藍鳥卡由運通發行，沃爾瑪負責經銷。得到FDIC保險是因為運通使用美國富國銀行（Wells Fargo，FDIC的成員銀行）的賬戶，為藍鳥卡注冊用戶提供服務。營收來自商家交易收費（也許沃爾瑪還能削減自身的交易成本——它與運通達成的財務條款從未公開），以及其他一些收費。藍鳥卡不收取透支費、月費、激活費或賬戶最低存款額費用。
There is a market opportunity: a 2011 FDIC survey found that 20 per cent of the 120m US households were underbanked and 8.2 per cent were unbanked. Amex does not quite have the acceptance of Visa and MasterCard, but combined with Walmart’s reach - 140m US customers weekly - there is room for Bluebird to spread its wings.
市場機遇是存在的：FDIC在2011年的一項調查發現，美國1.2億戶家庭中，20%的家庭未充分使用銀行業服務，還有8.2%的家庭完全未使用銀行服務。接受美國運通的商家數量趕不上Visa和萬事達卡，但借助沃爾瑪的規模（美國每周1.4億顧客），“藍鳥”有展翅高飛的空間。
