Company: GDOT
Filing Date: 2025-03-04
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001386278-25-000009
Chunk: 75

Company: GREEN DOT CORP
Filing Date: 2025-03-04
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7
Chunk 75
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 of spend, and on the mix of accountholder purchases between those using signature identification technologies and those using personal identification numbers and the corresponding rates.

Interest Income, net — Net interest income represents the difference between the interest income earned on our interest-earning assets and the interest expense on our interest-bearing liabilities held at Green Dot Bank. Interest-earning assets include cash from customer deposits, loans, and investment securities. Our interest-bearing liabilities held at Green Dot Bank include interest-bearing deposits. Our net interest income and our net interest margin fluctuate based on changes in the federal funds interest rates and changes in the amount and composition of our interest-bearing assets and liabilities.

37

Operating Expenses

We classify our operating expenses into the following four categories:

Sales and Marketing Expenses — Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of the commissions we pay to our retail distributors, brokers and partners, advertising and marketing expenses, and the costs of manufacturing and distributing card packages, placards and promotional materials to our retail distributors and personalized debit cards to consumers who have activated their cards. We generally establish commission percentages in long-term distribution agreements with our retail distributors and partners. Aggregate commissions with our retail distributors are determined by the number of account products and cash transfers sold at their respective retail stores. Commissions with our partners and, in certain cases, our retail distributors are determined by the revenue generated from the ongoing use of the associated card programs. We incur advertising and marketing expenses for television, sponsorships, online and in-store promotions. Advertising and marketing expenses are recognized as incurred and typically deliver a benefit over an extended period of time. For this reason, these expenses do not always track changes in our operating revenues. Our manufacturing and distribution costs vary primarily based on the number of accounts activated by consumers.

Compensation and Benefits Expenses — Compensation and benefits expenses represent the compensation and benefits that we provide to our employees and the payments we make to third-party contractors. While we have an in-house customer service function, we employ third-party contractors to conduct call center operations, handle routine customer service inquiries and provide consulting support in the area of IT operations and elsewhere. Compensation and benefits expenses associated with our customer service and loss management functions generally vary in line with the size of our active account portfolio, while the expenses associated with other functions do not.

Processing Expenses — Processing expenses consist primarily of the fees charged to us by the payment networks, which process transactions for us, the third-party card processors that maintain the records of our customers' accounts and process transaction authorizations and postings for us and the third-party banks that issue our