Dive Brief:

• Verizon on Tuesday launched Family Money, a banking app for the Gen Z demographic that allows parents to monitor their children’s spending and saving.

• The wireless network operator said it launched the app and prepaid debit card to help kids become financially responsible while their parents manage from the sidelines.

• The product, which is available to Verizon customers and noncustomers, gives parents the ability to monitor and cap their children’s spending, block certain spending categories and set up allowances. The app comes with a savings account, real-time alerts and spending notifications.

Dive Insight:

Family Money is designed for parents with children ages 8 to 17 and comes with a $5.99 monthly fee, which includes up to five accounts, Verizon said.

The account is powered by Galileo’s payments processing platform and deposits are held at Metropolitan Commercial Bank, the telecom giant said. 

The new product places the wireless company in challenger bank territory, a space that already has a number of digital players vying to give kids an introduction to banking and personal finance.

U.K.-based challenger bank gohenry is using the bulk of the $40 million it raised in December to expand into the U.S. market. For a monthly subscription fee of $3.99 per account, the digital platform provides users with a prepaid debit card and bank account with parental controls. 

San Francisco-based Step is also targeting the Gen Z market. The neobank, which has garnered celebrity investments from singer Justin Timberlake, music group The Chainsmokers and TikTok star Charli D'Amelio, raised $50 million in a Series B funding round last December.

Verizon, which launched its Verizon Visa Credit Card last summer, said it believes Family Money provides an additional layer of value to its customers.

"With Family Money, we’re showing what’s possible when tech and financial services come together," Todd Oberstein, executive director of product management and development at Verizon, said in a statement. "It’s the perfect way to help kids learn the ins and outs of managing money and yet another way we’re providing real benefits to our customers outside of the reliable connectivity they know and love us for."

Verizon isn’t the first wireless carrier to dip into the financial services space. Its competitor, T-Mobile, launched a digital banking platform in partnership with BankMobile in 2019.