The news: Green Dot’s fintech business and licensed bank are being separated and acquired—the former by a private equity firm and the latter by an $839 million commercial bank. The total value of the deal is estimated to be between $825 million and $1.1 billion.

Why it’s worth watching: Green Dot bought a Utah community bank in 2011, which it integrated as the sponsor bank for Green Dot’s prepaid cards and later for other payments and banking products and services.

CommerceOne is absorbing today’s incarnation, which has $5 billion in assets and $4.7 billion in deposits. Green Dot’s filing implies that CommerceOne will also take on the company’s money movement service segment, which has seen stagnant to declining revenue and narrow profits, as well as consumer services, which have been in steady decline.

Zoom out: Green Dot’s struggles have have led to a revolving door in the C-suite:

• In 2019, Green Dot’s founder retired. Shorely thereafter, the company appointed the chairman of its board of directors as interim CEO.
• In 2020, Green Dot named a permanent CEO in March, fired him in December, and promoted its CFO/COO to CEO.
• In early 2025, the CEO departed the company, it again appointed its former board chair as interim CEO, and promoted its chief revenue officer to CEO of the bank.

The only solution that Green Dot’s board has been able to come up with is to sell the company.

Our take: B2B services, including banking as a service, has been Green Dot’s growth engine. Carving off the noncore, lower-margin, declining part of the business will allow the company to focus on where it has the greatest growth opportunities. A bank can best leverage its expertise and infrastructure to operate the businesses that Green Dot has struggled with.