Company Overview
Offering financial services to the under-banked consumer, now estimated to be more than 70 million people and climbing, has become a major focus among banks, retailers, non-bank financial institutions and money transmitters. These services typically include check cashing, money transfers, bill payment, money orders, mobile top-offs, and prepaid cards. Today Chexar is leading the way for check cashing to migrate from traditional street corner businesses to mainstream brick and mortar, mobile deposit capture with instant funds availability, and self-service solutions. While many people believe that checks and check cashing will go away eventually, most agree that for the next decade or more, it is the most important hurdle this consumer faces sometimes daily. Until this consumer converts their check into “good funds” none of the other services are within their reach and getting past this hurdle is not always easy for this consumer.
CHEXAR® is the nation’s leading provider of solutions that enable successful “cash banking” relationships for more than 70 million underbanked consumers in America. Born originally as a retail financial services provider in 2001, today Chexar has hundreds employees serving thousands of retail, banking and alternative financial services provider locations in 36 states.
After almost 10 years of serving underbanked consumers, we know that any complete banking relationship involves a combination of transactional, deposit, and credit products. For under-banked consumers, their “cash banking” relationship begins with the need to cash over 20 different types of checks, including, but not limited to, payroll and government checks. The underbanked consumer has to cash their check before they can pay bills, send money home, top off cell phones, or load pre-paid cards.
Chexar’s platform is unique in its ability to enable Hispanic and mainstream retailers, banks, and alternative financial services providers to convert any type of check into guaranteed value whether that be cash, value load, cross border transfer, bill payment, or account deposit. Our risk management methodology enables us to accomplish this utilizing any legally acceptable form of identification and in most cases without requiring a Social Security Number. In addition, Chexar’s centralized platform is deployable across multiple channels beyond brick and mortar including Mobile Deposit Capture and self-service kiosks and ATM machines.
Chexar is integrating with some of the nation’s leading pre-paid debit card companies to enable their customers to load any type of check onto their cards. The ability to Load or “deposit” all checks onto the pre-paid debit card makes the card a true bank account alternative for the underbanked consumer.
Our History
CHEXAR’s secure check cashing system was born as the core operating platform for the nation’s leading Hispanic Banking initiative, El Banco de Nuestra Comunidad®. El Banco combined traditional retail banking, including FDIC insured deposit products and innovative credit products, with non-traditional services such as check cashing services for non-depositors. El Banco and its secure check cashing system (now Chexar) have been featured in TIME® Magazine, The Economist®, the Wall Street Journal®, the American Banker®, and many other publications during the past 7 years.
On October 31, 2007, we sold the branch banking operation of El Banco and re-named the company Chexar Networks, Inc.
Chexar today has helped thousands of client locations nationally to serve over 3 million under-banked consumers with over $3 billion in transactions. Chexar is profitable and was recently listed as number 26 among Atlanta’s 50 Fastest-Growing Private Companies by the Atlanta Business Chronicle – PACESETTER AWARDS – 2011.
