Think Finance is a Sequoia-backed startup that provides banking services to the underbanked and unbaked. The company has been around since 2001 and has been profitable since 2003, but they’ve operated very much under the radar by design until now.

Today, Think Finance is announcing that they’ve secured a $90 million credit facility from Victory Park Capital Advisors. This massive line of credit will be used to develop, expand and underwrite, Elastic, Think Finance’s web-based bank account replacement product.

Elastic is currently operational as a pilot program, providing its online bankers with an Elastic debit card, line of credit, and access to bank account statements and account history. Think Finance will enhance Elastic’s services with a savings feature, financial literacy tools and budgeting tools. The company plans to release these features and aggressively push Elastic in the first quarter of 2011.

Elastic’s savings account feature will be tailored to train its customers to better manage finances and reward them for doing so through an Elastic scoring program. Each customer will start out with a score of 600 — the score is designed to mimic credit scores — and that score will go up when the customer makes a payment, sets up direct deposit, completes a financial literacy course or accomplishes other positive banking activities. The higher the score, the better, as Think Finance will issue customers with high scores rebates on finance charges, essentially depositing extra funds into a customer’s account for good behavior.

Elastic’s services will somewhat overlap with BankSimple’s radical approach to online banking. But, CEO Ken Rees doesn’t see the early stage startup as competition.

“We celebrate all of the innovators in the space that use technology for banking purposes. They [BankSimple] are more focused on the needs of prime consumers. We’re focused on the underbanked and unbanked — the estimated 60 million people who are not well served by traditional banks,” says Rees.

Image courtesy of barsen, Flickr
via: Mashable

Actor Nicolas Cage is reportedly completely broke and has a significant amount of debt.

According to Showbiz Gossip the star is selling his off his properties all over the world to gain capital.

The 45-year-old actor is blaming his manager, saying he sent him down to financial ruin. Cage is reportedly beginning a multi-million dollar lawsuit against him.

Sky News reported that Cage owed $6 million in unpaid taxes and defaulted on a $2 million loan. He was reportedly forced to sell a castle in Germany because of his financial situation.

Cage currently has six films due to be released in the next two years.

It’s tough to hear this story right after I watched the Family Man again recently. It’s an “Art Imitates” life situation if you look back to that movie. What’s funny is when some people say they are broke, they still own 5 homes around the globe. The broke that I’ve been accustomed to meant you didn’t have sh!t, an you didn’t own sh!t. I gotta give him props though, he has good taste. I’m always entertained by the type of characters these people are and how they lived based on the things they’ve encountered. People watching is a my cheap and guilty pleasure.