MetaBank Serves as Agent for Distributing Prepaid Debit Cards as part of Economic Impact Program

Follows Successful Distribution of First and Second Round of EIP Prepaid Debit Cards

SIOUX FALLS, S.D., March 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meta Financial Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: CASH) (the “Company”) today announced that MetaBank, N.A. (“MetaBank” or the “Bank”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, has again been asked to disburse Economic Impact Payments (“EIP”) through the distribution of prepaid debit cards under a program authorized by the U.S. Congress through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARP Act”).

Reinforced by the Company’s mission of enabling financial inclusion, the Bank will disburse approximately $11 billion of EIP on Bank-issued prepaid cards in the third round, with initial payments beginning after March 22, 2021. This distribution builds upon the stimulus provided in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) from March 2020 and in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (“CAA”) from December 2020. Under the CARES Act, the Bank disbursed $6.4 billion through the distribution of 3.6 million Bank-issued prepaid cards for the first round of EIP and, through the CAA, disbursed $7.1 billion of the second round of EIP through the distribution of 8.1 million Bank-issued prepaid cards.

Participation in the EIP program is expected to have a slightly positive impact on the Company’s earnings. As with the first and second round of EIP, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, worked with MetaBank as the existing Financial Agent for the U.S. Debit Card and Digital Pay Program to provide an additional mechanism to deliver economic impact payments into the hands of qualifying individuals across the nation. As with the second round of EIP, the Bank is coordinating with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”) and the Federal Reserve and has been granted temporary exemption from its requirement to maintain minimum regulatory capital leverage ratios by the OCC due to distributing prepaid debit cards as part of the EIP program as listed above. The Bank expects to remain in good standing with regulatory agencies, will not be deemed as undercapitalized, and will not be under any regulatory restrictions due to participation in the card distribution program.