All Payments Expo 2015 - Dates Announced

All Payments Expo is THE meeting place for the world's most successful merchants, payments companies, banks and technology firms. Industry leaders come together to create partnerships, launch new products, develop new business and explore innovations 

Download your APEX Sneak Peek here!

Top Reasons to Attend:

More Retailers

APEX attracts 300+ retailers annually to meet with vendors, re-sign contracts and scout out new potential vendors. Retailers also meet with peers for industry benchmarking, networking and to uncover tactics and challenges to grow programs across plastic and digital platforms.     

New Faces

You'll meet more executives who are relevant to all the areas of your business, with a flood of new participants. New attendees hail from retail's IT, Marketing and Corporate Strategy functions; new app developers (from wallets to loyalty); alternative financial services  CEOs, merchant acquirers; cyptocurrency players and more.

Secure Meetings

All APEX attendees will have access to the attendee list on our proprietary partneringONE platform, where you can vet potential partners and easily pre-arrange meetings. More than 5,000 meetings take place onsite annually.          

Growth Opportunities for Prepaid

With prepaid maturing, this is THE place to identify new customer segments, distribution opportunities and use cases that take your prepaid business into unsaturated territory.

Register now and you can save $400! Plus, as a blog reader you can receive an extra $100 off the standard rate, by using the code “XU2848BLOG”, a total savings of $500 - Register Now! 

See you in Las Vegas! 

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Partnering Round Up: 12/23 – 1/3

All Payments Expo is committed to catalyzing value add partnerships for the betterment of the ecosystem. Here’s the weekly roundup of partnership news:

•  “FAA Federal Credit Union, University of Nebraska Federal Credit Union and Valley Credit Union have selected industry partners CheckAlt, iParse and CU Wireless as their mobile deposit solution provider. The move signals the company’s intention to expand their partnerships into 2014.” To learn more about this partnership, click here.

• “MasterCard, eServGlobal and BICS have announced the formation of HomeSend, a joint venture which will enable consumers to send money to and from mobile money accounts, payment cards and bank accounts regardless of their location.” To learn more about this partnership, click here.

•  “Q2, a provider of enterprise solutions for secure virtual banking, together with Urban Partnership Bank, has announced the successful implementation of upbAnywhere for online and mobile banking. Using the Q2platform, Urban Partnership Bank account holders can now securely access their bank accounts and manage money whenever and wherever they want using a computer, tablet or mobile phone.” To learn more about this partnership, click here.

• “Bank of America Merill Lynch has signed a multi-year agreement with cross-border PSP Earthport that will significantly expand the bank’s low value clearing capabilities worldwide, and advance the efficiency of its high volume, low value payments.” To learn more about this partnership, click here.

Click here for more information on partnering and how you can guarantee ROI at All Payments Expo.

See you in Las Vegas!

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Register for All Payments Expo by Friday Dec. 6 to Save $700!

Save up to $700 if you sign up to attend All Payments Expo by Friday, Dec. 6. This is the best possible price for All Payments Expo - after Dec. 6, rates go up. 

Here's All Payments Expo's Mission: 

• Focused on drilling down into the bedrock of payments innovation, including alternative financial services, prepaid, acquiring, technology, omnichannel retail, lending & gifting. 
• Biggest business development event in payments, and the only event with an exclusive partnering tool to help you generate real ROI with clients and potential partners on-site. 
• The largest number of retailers of ANY payments event, with more than 300 omnichannel focused merchants in attendance. 
• Designed to make the most of team attendance. Make sure your company's leadership, product, business development, marketing functions are in attendance (group discounts are as high as 20%) and build business & buzz at the show. 
• Home to FinTech Partnerships, an exclusive 2-day forum designed to catalyze strategic alliances between banks and non-bank innovators in mobile banking, PFM, in-branch technologies, lending and more. 

Take advantage of this discounted rate – Register today!

Raise Your Profile at APEX: A limited number of sponsorship opportunities are available. If interested, please contact Terri Sobol at 646.895.7473 or tsobol@iirusa.com  

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Partnering Round Up: 11/18 - 11/22

All Payments Expo is committed to catalyzing value add partnerships for the betterment of the ecosystem. Here’s the weekly roundup of partnership news: 

“African telecommunications giant MTN, and world leading e-payment service provider Visa, have come into partnership to offer customers a mobile payment solution which allows MTN Mobile Money customers to make online transactions wherever Visa is accepted.”  To read the full article,  click here.

“WunWun triples orders since launch, partners with Dwolla for payment” To read the full article, click here.

“Our extended partnership with Green Dot now allows our cardholders to load funds to their prepaid cards at more than 4,000 Walmart stores that offer Walmart’s Rapid Reload service.” said MasterCard Group Executive of U.S. Market Development, Craig Vosburg. To read the full article, click here.

"SumAll, the leading provider of connected data analytics, today announced a partnership with Simplify Commerce by MasterCard that makes it easy for merchants to accept e-commerce and mobile commerce payments, regardless of payment brand, in a matter of minutes." To read the full announcement, click here.

"Visa has announced a strategic alliance with global prepaid processor i2c, Inc., affirming its commitment to the growing prepaid market in Asia-Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East & Africa (APCEMEA)." Read the full article here.

Click here for more information on partnering and how you can guarantee ROI at All Payments Expo.

See you in Las Vegas.

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PARTNERING is taking center stage at All Payments Expo

Here's why payments companies MUST partner: 

Industry Convergence: 
Incumbent institutions are being joined by new companies and industries entering the payments space, giving everyone opportunities to leverage the strengths of other players.

Interoperability: 
An interoperable infrastructure is necessary to facilitate widespread acceptance of new payment types, making unionification crucial in the evolving ecosystem. 

Innovation: 
New players bring new strategies- and much-needed data, scale or functionalities to augment existing product pipelines. 

Independence from Old Business Models: 
Payments' rapid-fire evolution is set to change the revenue structure for the entire industry, making new partnerships with creative players a must. 

For more information on partnering and how you can guarantee ROI at All Payments Expo – CLICK HERE

See you in Las Vegas!

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Q&A with Sarika Abbi, Director of Ideation, at D2D Fund

There have been lots of innovations surfacing for GPR cards, and one that’s particularly gotten the industry’s attention is savings pockets. At Prepaid Expo in March, Sarika Abbi, Director of Ideation at D2D Fund, provided some interesting research on savings pockets’ impact on GPR card stickiness and users’ financial health. Now, with D2D’s new report, Paving the Way Forward: Savings On Prepaid Cards, she dives even deeper. Check out the report, and our exclusive Q&A with her below.


1. This recent report has some sobering facts, including that 50% of Americans are not confident they could manage a $2,000 financial emergency. What’s the single most important thing the financial services industry should be doing to turn statistics like these around?

The financial services industry can help turn statistics like this around by keeping in mind that helping consumers on a path towards financial stability will be a win-win proposition – consumers that are not liquidity constrained and have stronger household balance sheets will be more satisfied, engaged, and profitable consumers. 

2. According to this study, cards with these savings features tend to experience less churn. Is there a barrier keeping more program managers incorporating savings pockets into their programs?

One significant challenge is that program managers need others in the prepaid value chain (e.g. processor, issuing bank) able to and comfortable (especially from a risk perspective) with offering additional features such as savings. But there is also a misperception of consumers’ interest and demand for this feature as well as how it can be effectively marketed and designed on a prepaid card to work for both providers and consumers. 

We also need to think differently about what “savings” and “successful savings” means for consumers. For some, it is about building a reserve for a near or long-term goal but for others, especially more financially vulnerable consumers, it is about having access to a revolving savings pocket – a place where they can set a little bit aside when available but dip into it for short-term needs such as groceries and emergencies. While savings might not stay long in this pocket and might be perceived as non-savings, it is helping consumers address their liquidity needs. A lack of liquidity can be a significant contributor to financial vulnerability for households.  And access to savings can help consumers rely less on and slowly transition away from alternatives to savings, such as credit, that can be costly and destabilizing. 

3. There’s been some resistance from the regulatory community about offering credit or overdraft on GPR and payroll cards. Do those features help users who are in a financial bind? What’s your take?

Without addressing the regulatory concerns here, which I assume also incorporates concerns over fees, I do believe offering credit (or a form of credit) could be interesting and a value-add from both the consumers’ as well as providers’ perspective.  However, credit would need to be carefully designed and made accessible to address the tension between a need for credit when in a financial bind and access to credit that can be further destabilizing and detrimental to households. So, for instance, it would be interesting to explore credit in conjunction with a savings feature on a prepaid card – made accessible and designed in a way that can and does help consumers in a financial bind. 

4. What’s the next step for you and your team’s product innovation and research? 

We continue looking at innovation that helps scale savings on prepaid cards. Below is some of the work we are interested in: 

• Exploring savings on prepaid cards offered through various channels such as retailers, employers and the government to scale access to savings.
• Designing add-on features, such as a prize-linked savings layer and gamification, to strengthen engagement with savings features by making saving fun and rewarding.
• Bundling savings on prepaid cards with additional financial products or services, such as credit, that can help address the savings gap when a short-term need arises. 
• Exploring ways to commoditize savings, such as gifting savings, and offering stand-alone savings prepaid cards.    

Sarika Abbi is the Director of Ideation at D2D Fund. She works on initiatives to design and pilot new saving products as well as new ways to market and distribute these products to under-served consumers. Prior to joining D2D her work focused on improving financial access for low income households in developing countries. While at Ideas42, she worked with researchers and practitioners in development finance to design financial products and managed a research center and team internationally to pilot test the designs. Before entering the financial inclusion field, she worked in the private sector consulting on executive compensation. She holds a Masters in Public Administration from NYU and a Bachelors of Economics from Univ. of California, Berkeley.

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Prepaid Expo Evolves… into All Payments Expo (APEX)

The longest-running event in prepaid is unveiling a new name and evolved mission: All Payments Expo (APEX), the NEW home for Prepaid Expo attendees, plans to stimulate cross pollination between prepaid and new and alternative players who are innovating payments, gifting and omni-channel retail strategies. The mission: catalyze the partnerships that are necessary to build the next generation of innovative payments, from the mobile environment to the brick-and-mortar POS.

Since the Expo’s beginnings nearly a decade ago, prepaid has pushed the boundaries of what payments can do – and in the process, evolved way past simple stored value. It’s been an exciting journey to see prepaid move from the fringes to the mainstream, thanks to the growing sophistication of gifting, payroll and GPR.

And as technology has fueled innovation in financial services and retail, prepaid’s flexibility has lent itself as a building block for new innovations, including hybrid products, social gamification, PFM platforms, cash infusions in the mobile wallet, and more. GPR has evolved into alternative financial services; gifting has blossomed as an integral part of Omnichannel retail strategy; and emerging payments are, naturally, impacting the entire ecosystem.

 As technology advances, margins tighten and competition heats up, the prepaid business is changing, and All Payments Expo (APEX) will be focused on helping attendees map the evolution of their businesses. Our loyal attendees will be able to meet with their existing partners, customers and clients – but there will be a lot of new faces, and new potential partners, too.

Here’s a snapshot of how Prepaid Expo has evolved: And a window into how the industry has changed, too.

  

  Prepaid, you’ve come so far… 

2006: 1st Prepaid Expo in Orlando Focuses: Unbanked, Underserved, Payroll 

2014: (APEX) All Payments Expo in Las Vegas 
Focuses: Alternative Financial Services, Omnichannel Retail Strategy, Emerging Payments, Prepaid, Gifting, PFM, Healthcare Reform, Cash-Based Innovations, mPOS, Future of Interchange, Gamification, APIs, Loyalty, the Wallet and MORE.

If you’re in prepaid, your business is changing rapidly. So too, is the longest-running event built for the prepaid industry. See you in Vegas!

And by the way – we are already building out our agenda and speaker faculty for the 2014 event. If you’d like to get involved or speak, please contact Diana Middleton at dmiddleton@iirusa.com.

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Prepaid Expo Day 2: Evening Recap

In our evening session today titled, "What's driving the Payments Market? Future through the eyes of the investors" there was a venture capitalist panel discussing what truly is pushing the payments market forward. The panel of venture capitalists was made up of: - Arjan Schutte, Managing Partner, Core Innovation Capital - Ramneek Gupta, Managing Director, Venture Leader, Citi Ventures - Scott Feldman, Director, Susquehanna Growth Equity - Michal Petrzela, Principal, Lightyear Capital For those of you who missed it, here is a quick recap: - Mobile payments phenomena: due to smartphone and tablet usage - 1.5 billion people have desktop internet access as well as mobile access (mobile is continues to grow rapidly) - Top 15 payment oriented companies collectively generate 50 billion in revenues - Based on slowing growth rate, dropping margins and more competition it is no surprise we've already witnessed five powerful acquisitions in 2013 - Advice for entrepreneurs: develop and cultivate relationships with everyone, leverage your network, and think about who will find your business valuable one day.

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Prepaid Expo Day 2: Mid Day Recap

"Are GPR Cards a Destination or a Journey?" was an interactive panel with many industry heavyweights debating the trajectory of prepaid GPR cards. The panel was moderated by the CEO of Paybefore Marilyn Bochicchio and the panel was made up of: - Dan Henry, CEO, Netspend - Brett Adams, Lead, U.S. Prepaid Products, MasterCard Worldwide - Mark Putnam, SVP & Divisinal Manager of Prepaid Solutions, First Data - Adam Rust, Director of Research, Reinvestment Partners Incase you missed the session, here are some highlights: - There are 68 million people that are underbanked - for many, GPR cards are the only choice (18-23% of all people get turned down on traditional banking options) - Over the past few years, the total cost of ownership for prepaid cards has steadily decreased - Prepaid options that are totally transparent can lead to increase trust from the consumer - Mobile enabled features is key: it all comes down to combining the paper and the digital worlds - The appeal of prepaid is about having immediate access to your funds

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Prepaid Expo Day 1: Mid Day Recap

Sheryl Connelly, Global Consumer Trends and Futuring, Ford Motor Company kicked off the Prepaid Expo this afternoon with a Keynote address titled "Futurist: How to innovate for what you don't anticipate". Here are some highlights from the session: Wildcard Analysis: how do we predict the future? How can we deal with unplanned occurrences - Katrina, the recession, etc... Trends: a deep rooted long held value or behavior. How do we study these trends to plan for the future? Scenario Planning: a way to provoke new thinking, while entertaining every possibility. From a baby boom to an alien invasion, you need to think through every possible scenario as you look towards the future.

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Prepaid Expo Day 1: Morning Recap

Richard Crone, Founder and CEO of Crone Consulting LLC, just spoke in one of the opening sessions at the Prepaid Expo. His session titled "Advanced Mobile: Strengthen Your Mobile Core" drew an interactive audience eager to learn from what Richard had to share. Here is a quick recap just incase you missed out: "The one who enrolls is the one who controls" - Mobile Payment Apps are not actually about payments, they are about the big data. You controls the consumers data - not a third party source. - The amount of time consumers have spent in retailer apps has skyrocketed 525% from Dec. 2011 to Dec. 2012 - Companies that use mobile apps saw an increase in sales and operational effectiveness, higher conversion rates, and higher retention rates - Mobile Apps are about recognizing your best customers - not displacing the cashiers in the store. - The average smartphone user has 40 apps on their phone and only uses 15 of them.

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TSYS Set to Acquire NetSpend in $1.4B Deal

TSYS, a leading global payment solutions provider announced yesterday that they will acquire NetSpend, a leading U.S. provider of general purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid debit cards to underbanked consumers. It’s a transaction valued at approximately $1.4 billion.

At Prepaid Expo, attendees will get exclusive insight from NetSpend that will provide analysis on this strategic move. Dan Henry, CEO of NetSpend, will be giving his insights on the future of GPR alongside a panel of heavy hitters. Additionally, Tim Pfeifer, Corporate Counsel at NetSpend, will join Don Mosher of Schulte Roth & Zabel for an executive session focused on M&A and IPOs in prepaid – which will shed some light on the consolidation environment in the prepaid space.

For TSYS, the move is transformational in its move to grow its business while complementing its foothold in prepaid processing, according to Philip W. Tomlinson, TSYS’s chairman of the board and CEO.

“[The acquisition] enables us to meet our strategic goals of diversifying our business, being a more innovative payment solutions provider and expanding our role within an area of payments that is expected to grow at a 20% annual rate over the next four years,” said Tomlinson in a statement.

This is a major deal in the prepaid industry, positioning TSYS, the huge processor, to maintain market share amidst strong competitors like Square while accelerating the growth of NetSpend, which should place even more pressure on competitors like Green Dot.

With NetSpend’s extremely extensive distribution network of over 62,000 locations, 130,000 reload locations, and more than 2.4 million accounts, TSYS and NetSpend are solidifying themselves as one of the industry’s biggest players.

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Combination ID/Prepaid Card: Set to Debut in Oakland

Prepaid is one of the most flexible forms of payment available – and its latest incarnation, in Oakland, California, is a city-issued ID card for undocumented residents who are often financially vulnerable and under- or unbanked. It is the first city in the U.S. to offer municipal ID cards with prepaid features.

The card, dubbed the Oakland City ID Prepaid MasterCard  is a joint venture between SF Global, MasterCard, and University National Bank. The card was designed to provide identification (particularly so users can identify themselves to legal authorities) as well as provide entrance into affordable financial services. Card users can take advantage of direct deposit, as well as shop online with the card.

According to the Oakland Tribune, the card alone will cost $15. The prepaid features cost $2.99 per month. Other fees include a $1.50 ATM withdrawal fee, a 75-cent fee on purchases and a $1.75 fee for calling customer service. It will cost $2.95 to load money onto the card.

The applications for the program are now being accepted by the city and the first cards expect to be issued by March 15th. The city expects to issue 6,000 cards this year.

A similar card is slated to debut in Richmond, Calif., and apparently, Los Angeles is also considering the idea. What do you think of this sort of opportunity for the prepaid industry? This is a huge development for the prepaid industry because it is a direct link between a person’s identity and spending –increasing security for unbanked finances.

Where will prepaid head next? Find out at the Prepaid Expo this March. For more information about the Expo, click here.





See the full article here.

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Showcase your Innovations in Mobile and Emerging Payments at Prepaid Expo

Is your company changing how people can pay? The diversity of the prepaid market has made it a ripe industry for technological adoption and implementation.

Prepaid Expo 2013 has created an all-new Emerging Payments Pavilion for 2013 in the central hub of the exhibit hall. Attendees can learn about and shop for new technologies and payment systems to implement into their business plans.

Own your own 10 x 4 ½“ storefront in the Mobile Pavilion and showcase your solutions to 1,400+ players in the prepaid market; including decision-makers from card networks, processors, banks, retailers, technology providers, and telecommunications.

Space is very limited, sign on today! For more information, or to reserve your space today, please contact Matthew Middleton – 646.616.7604 mmiddleton@iirusa.com

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No More Overdraft Fees for UTB Prepaid Customers

According to the Center for Responsible Lending, U.S. Households spend more on overdraft fees than on fresh veggies. Whether financial reform will change that remains to be seen.







On Friday, the $566 million-asset Urban Trust Bank (UTB) of Lake Mary, FL has stopped charging overdraft fees on prepaid cards. This came in response to consumer advocates who claimed the card offered overdraft protection for a fee of 15 cents for every $1 in negative balance, a rate that exceeded the interest-rate caps in several states.

The prepaid industry is getting scrutinized more and more about overdraft protection, regulation, as well as the fees – as we saw last week with the prepaid reforms from Attorney General Pam Bondi in Florida. In March at the Prepaid Expo, we will have a panel discussion on overdraft protection with a Netspend executive.

See the full list of speakers and to learn more about the Prepaid Expo click here.

See the original article here.

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Facebook: The Next Player in Prepaid?

Facebook is expanding their prepaid presence with the launch of its own branded gift card. The card began rolling out last week and continues to expand availability gradually for U.S. users. This card is currently available for use at four merchant partners; Jamba Juice, Olive Garden, Sephora, and Target. Once a user physically possesses the card, gift amounts will be loaded onto that card – which has separate balances for each merchant. Balances are available to monitor from within users Facebook accounts, and users will receive a notification every time  a charge is made.

This is an interesting move from Facebook – especially given the numerous more flexible gift card options in the market.  Does a move from a social media heavyweight like Facebook have merit or do their failed attempts at virtual currency hang a shadow over this development?

Either way you see it, Facebook’s move clearly denotes one thing – prepaid is a growing industry and competition continues to heighten.

Prepaid Players –  let us know what you think about this move from Facebook!

See the full article from Paybefore here.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ryan Geswell is a New Media Analyst in the Finance Division at IIR USA with a background in Marketing and Media. He can be reached at rgeswell@iirusa.com.

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Where Do YOU Think Prepaid and Payments are Headed?

The Prepaid Expo and the Mercator Advisory Group have co-authored a prepaid industry attitudinal survey. Respondents from across the entire prepaid industry will be able to voice their opinion on where they feel prepaid is headed. 


You can participate in the survey here or scan the QR code. The survey has been divided into two separate paths, with tailored questions for GPR players and closed-loop players. Participants will be entered to win a 16GB iPad with retina display.

Results from this survey will be revealed at the Prepaid Expo this March – as well as the winner of the iPad. Data from the survey is exclusive data that you will not be able to find anywhere else. You do not want to miss the opportunity for exclusive industry insights. Click here to register for the Prepaid Expo.

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5 Reasons You Can't Miss Prepaid Expo Europe

Increased competition, often from nontraditional players, slim profit margins and regulation have been placing pressure on prepaid businesses around the globe. However, as we’ve been discussing here on our blog, recent digital and mobile innovations have ignited the payment world providing a host of opportunities to combat traditional hurdles and reinvent how we think about payments and banking.

As we continue our year round research, we shaped our Prepaid Europe agenda around these exact themes. Here’s a list of our top five sessions planned for Prepaid Expo Europe

1. What You Need to Know About Expanding Your Prepaid Programme Across Europe

Industry leaders, including Ticket Master, will address how they’ve taken a successful prepaid programme and moved it into new geographies, including how they’ve overcome cultural idiosyncrasies and regulatory hurdles. (Reminder: This is just one of FOUR pre-conference workshops to choose from – see them all here.)

2. Wallet Hype vs. Reality: What’s the Future of the Wallet?

Sift through fact and fiction and hear when industry experts predict the digital wallet take off? Executives, including the O2 wallet, will dissect the appetite for a wallet, and which functionalities will pave the way for mass adoption.

3. What Incentives Really Make an Impact? – Straight from an HR Director

We’ll be interviewing an HR Director to gain insight into how and where incentives make an impact in the workplace. Get the information you need to tailor programmes that are attractive to employees – and maximise your presence in the B2B channel.

4. Saying Good-bye to the Paper Cheque: A New Era for Government Payments

Hear from both Citi and the Department for Work and Pensions in a case study on how prepaid is replacing paper cheques on a new electronic platform giving you a feel for how to eye new opportunities – and enact them.

5. Have the Needs of the Consumer Changed?

Shoppers’ preferences are shifting in kaleidoscopic fashion, including mobile browsing, show-rooming, and eCommerce. Are you leveraging these changes in your prepaid programme? What are the newest consumer-driven innovations? You’ll be inspired to rethink the product pipeline after this session.


This is just a taste of the 20+ hours of content and networking we’ve put together for Prepaid Expo Europe, the largest gathering of retail, B2B and open-loop executives focused on prepaid in Europe.

Click here to download full agenda and speaker details.

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The NFC Solution for the iPhone

The iPhone may not be NFC-enabled, but some payment players are trying to change that. U.S. Bancorp has been testing a touch-to-pay technology for iPhone users. The NFC-enabling technology is built into the smartphone case. This is big news for iPhone users, especially as the iPhone has not yet been equipped with NFC technology.

For iPhone customers, this opens up a new form of tap-and-go payment. Niti Badarinath, U.S. Bank's digital strategy and mobile banking head, said in an interview last year that he views mobile payments as "the next frontier."

NFC has been under fire from several players in the payments ecosystem, includingPayPal. But this latest move shows that there are many industry players who believe in NFC. With the market share for iPhones in the U.S. at 32%, will this NFC-equipped case change the game for NFC proponents?

Join us at the Prepaid Expo in March where industry experts from Giftango, Visa, Blackhawk, Oberthur Technologies and many others will be discussing the future of NFC, mobile wallets and other emerging technologies.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ryan Geswell is a New Media Analyst in the Finance Division at IIR USA with a background in Marketing and Media. He can be reached at rgeswell@iirusa.com.

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Prepaid Card Reforms: A Focus on UDAAP Risks

The Attorney General of Florida, Pam Bondi, recently announced settlements with five of the largest prepaid companies operating in the state. The settlements follow an investigation that the companies misled consumers on fees, as well as claims that the prepaid cards would improve their credit histories.

According to a statement from Bondi, “The reforms we are requiring will protect consumers by providing them with the information they need in order to make sound financial decisions, and they establish standard business practices among Florida’s largest prepaid debit card companies.” The settlement also includes a payment of $115,000 to the Central Florida Chapter of Junior Achievement.

While this news is not as brutal as the announcements of settlements over the summer, the legal community is bracing for more such news. With interpretation of UDAAP-related statutes often open-ended and murky, now is the time to protect your firm from risk and compliance issues coming up in 2013.

At Prepaid Expo this March, you’ll hear from Martin Bishop, Chair of Consumer Financial Services Practice and Vice Chair of Litigation Department at Foley & Lardner LLP. In this interactive UDAAP-focused session, you’ll dive into analysis of the statute, as well as tackle hypothetical situations to diagnose your readiness to handle compliance.

What do you think this settlement means for the prepaid industry as a whole? Is this a blip on the radar – or do companies need to join together as an industry to clarify these regulatory mandates?

Read the full article here.  




 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ryan Geswell is a New Media Analyst in the Finance Division at IIR USA with a background in Marketing and Media. He can be reached at rgeswell@iirusa.com.

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