Is 2015 the Year for the Bitcoin?

Alternative payment systems are becoming more prevalent in the payments world and there are many new systems that diminish the need for traditional banking processes. Bitcoins, which came about in 2009, are a currency used that are increasingly being looked at as another alternative payment system in the future.

Bitcoins are an online payment currency that have been revolutionary since their creation for being able to make peer to peer transactions without a middle man, i.e. not having to use a bank. Transactions can also be anonymous and there are no fees which make them very efficient and useful for consumers. ANX have recently issued a Bitcoin debit card which can be shipped to users and is the first Bitcoin debit card to allow users to pay with Bitcoins with the traditional credit card payment system, online and for carrying out cash withdrawals. The card supports 10 different currencies and sold out within 24 hours of being available.

The new card could mean an increase in interest in Bitcoins and their flexibility and versatility for payment could mean an upsurge in popularity. Being able to transfer money easily online without transaction fees or needing bank transfers is very useful for a consumer and so using Bitcoins means large savings on transaction costs. Also being able to pay now with Bitcoins means less dependency on banks and ATMs to get out cash.

However, there are still question marks regarding Bitcoins and the events of 2014 hit their credibility hard. Ross Ulbricht, the alleged creator of Silk Road, an online drug marketplace where Bitcoins are the currency, has recently been found guilty of charges related to drug trafficking, money laundering plus more and faces a minimum of 20 years in prison. Bitcoins are seen by many as a resource for illegal activity and is still generally not particularly well known globally.

An issue raised by many is the problem with the sporadic nature of the Bitcoin’s value. The value of the Bitcoin today is below $250 whereas at its peak in 2013 it reached a little over $1200. Will the volatility of the value affect a day to day consumer’s interest in getting an ANX debit card or even investing in Bitcoins in the first place? There has however been a lot of investment in Bitcoins by large investors, who say that there simply is a need for one ‘killer app’. In 2014, around $300 million was invested in Bitcoin startups, with startup apps such as ‘Purse.io’ which sources Amazon credits or gift cards and people can buy them off someone looking to get rid of them for Bitcoins.

2015 will be a very big year for the Bitcoin and the next year or two will be crucial to see whether it can evolve into a vital resource in the payment world. Better security and a stabilization of the value are important for whether other big companies such as ANX may invest and provide payment services that cater Bitcoins. This new card could mean even less reliance on traditional payment systems and pave the way for payment systems using Bitcoins.

Cryptocurrency has the potential to be the biggest commerce disruptor since the web. Now is the time to evaluate and leverage the inherent opportunities in Bitcoin's transactional currency applications and the underlying protocol.

All Payments Expo is rife with opportunities for cryptocurrency and mainstream payment systems to dissect potential partnerships and implementation challenges. Companies looking to invest, partner, or acquire new technologies will hear from the most provocative cryptocurrency leaders.

To see all APEX has to offer, download the agenda.

Register now and save $100 when you use the code XU2848BLOG.

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Prepaid Debit Cards: Safety & Security in Logistics Warehousing

Guest Post by ODW Logistics 


Third-party logistics providers work to ensure that the supply chain management of prepaid debit cards includes consumer protection. Safety and security are important factors when handling this sensitive product.


 Here are some factors to consider:

• To be a sophisticated provider, the first area of protection starts with the warehouse entrance gate. All visitors and employees are registered to keep potential security threats at bay.

• Other important safety and security precautions to consider in a prepaid products warehouse provider include: automatic police dispatch, alarm fitted fire doors with a safe escape, trip hazard floors, semi annual inspections on equipment to ensure everything is working properly, disaster recovery plans and required certifications.

• Hiring trustworthy employees to join your staff is quite possibly the most important factor.  Your product and customers are not going to be safe if your 3PL does not screen employees and verify they undergo the correct training.  

Each prepaid fulfillment operation will have its own characteristics based on customer demand. When choosing a 3PL or other fulfillment company to manage your prepaid products, some or all of these factors may or may not apply.

_________


Guest post by All Payments Expo exhibitor, ODW Logistics

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TAS Group’s New Card 3.0 Card Management Platform Increase Profits for Prepaid Card Programs

All Payments Expo exhibitor, TAS Group, is a global leader of software solutions for electronic money, payment systems and financial markets.  It is at the forefront of innovations in payments. Its solutions have been implemented in many large issuing and acquiring institutions globally.

TAS Group’s new card 3.0 card management platform increase profits for prepaid card programs. With card 3.0 program managers, processors and card issuers can now design and deploy prepaid products to market quicker than ever before…

To learn more about card 3.0, read the full press release from TAS Group here.

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Q&A with Matt Davies, Executive Director, Gift Card Network

2014 All Payments Expo speaker Matt Davies, Executive Director, Gift Card Network sits down with APEX for a brief Q&A about the future of the payments industry. To hear more about the landscape of the payments industry from Matt, make sure you register for APEX today! And remember, blog readers receive a 10% discount - register here.


1) What is the most overheated opportunity for payments players? What is the most overlooked that should get more attention?

Mobile Wallets and its many iterations has dominated the discussion without bothering to define it. There are so many different concepts and approaches that the market is confused and will stay stagnant until a major player comes in and pushes the market in a specific direction with a goal that the public and merchant population has bought into and finds value in.

Education about the payments space is the most important thing for us to focus on. Startups needing merchant support must look at the things that merchants care about, and go about building their own brand and market share prior to asking for support, and educate and market themselves to their potential clients in a comfortable way.

2) What is one thing blocking innovation for payments in the U.S.?

The cultural difference between entrepreneurs, who are have incentive to break the rules, and the decision makers, who have incentive to create new rules or play by them. There is a vast difference between what CAN be done and what SHOULD be done for each particular merchant- we need to break down the psychological barriers and engage in neutral problem-solving conversations.

3) In ten years, what will be the new payment type that’s gotten the most traction?

Flat transaction rate credit and debit card providers. It's an ideal state for retailers to get away from the percentage based model, and it allows consumers to utilize credit.
 
That, or monkey-bucks.

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Network Branded Prepaid Cards: Transcending Traditional Boundaries

Traditionally, prepaid cards were thought to be for unbanked or underbanked people who cannot get a checking account or qualify for a credit card. As payment trends shifted from cash and checks to debit and credit, prepaid cards were a solution that allowed people without bank accounts to purchase online items, pay over the phone, make collect calls and track spending.

Prepaid cards have matured and found their own value proposition in several areas other than just being a replacement for credit cards and checking accounts. They are uniquely fulfilling the needs that were left unaddressed by traditional payment products:

•  Student cards for university funds disbursement
• Rather than waiting for scholarship and loan checks to be cut, mailed and sent, universities can now quickly and efficiently, load funds on student cards that act as both student IDs and prepaid debit cards. Not only is it easier to track allocated funds, inventory, shipping and labor costs of disbursement are dramatically reduced.

• Teen cards controlled by parents
• With a prepaid card issued to teenagers but managed by parents, this mutually beneficial option gives both parties freedom and control respectively. Parents are able to load the card at their discretion and monitor how their child is spending the money. Because funds can be loaded remotely (either online, over the phone, or automatic transfers) there is added convenience and security in case of emergencies. Parents can also restrict the cards to be used only at places they would like their children to go to 

• Commercial prepaid cards for employers/employees 
• Helping small businesses manage business-related payments, commercial prepaid cards, unlike credit cards, are available to both employer and employee. With card management websites, employers can tailor cards to ensure projects stay on budget and control the type of purchases that the employees can make. Employees don’t have to pay upfront or spend company time on expense reports. Commercial prepaid cards work very well for small employers/businesses that cannot get commercial credit cards or those who do not want their credit history be tarnished because of unscrupulous use by a vagrant employee. 

• Travel/Forex cards 
• Travel and Foreign Exchange (Forex) cards reduce your exposure to fraud and does not impact your credit history if lost or misused abroad. With Travel cards, you don’t have to exchange cash or traveler’s checks to foreign currency; saving you time and risk of carrying physical money. Forex prepaid cards can be directly loaded in the currency of your destination country which is not possible with a checking account (debit card) or a credit card. 

• Government fund disbursement 
• Government prepaid fund disbursement significantly reduces costs because it doesn’t require printing, posting or handling of checks. Processed payments are deposited directly onto the Government issued card, reducing clerical error, lost postage and mail fraud. 

• FSA/HSA accounts 
• Flexible Spending and Health Savings accounts can be used to pay for qualified medical expenses at any time without federal tax liability or penalty. Patients can receive needed care without submitting claims or waiting for approval of benefits. Because consumers are more responsible for their own health care choices, it saves them time and insurance companies’ administrative and customer service costs.

• Transit cards 
• Transit cards are much more efficient from the now obsolete token payment process. Not only does the prepaid card heavily reduces cost of minting and storing tokens, it gives passengers options to buy transit packages or pre-purchase rides without having to collect and carry loose tokens. Prepaid transit cards can be easily bought at a kiosk which is not possible for credit cards yet. 

• Payroll cards/Sales commission/Incentive card 
• Prepaid cards for employees are an efficient method for wages, compensation and bonus payments. Employers can easily load Payroll cards for payment of services, travel expenses or commission. Like Government distribution, Payroll cards reduce the cost of cutting checks. It’s also convenient for employees because they have access to their money immediately after deposit. Such cards are very useful for adhoc payments of any kind where the payer does not have payee’s bank account or if the payee does not want to share his bank account information for security reasons.

• Remote check deposit 
• Remote check deposits are beneficial because it allows companies to deposit checks from their computer rather than having to go to the bank. This eliminates travel expense, reduces admin and paperwork, and allows you to consolidate bank relationships, as well as, have speedier access to deposited funds. Looking at the potential of prepaid cards, Visa in 2012 announced a service, Spyke, which allows all Visa prepaid card holders to deposit a check by taking its picture from their smartphone.

The continued expansion of prepaid options has evolved the payment industry by reducing time and cost, while also, increasing convenience and efficiency in unique ways. Prepaid cards are no longer ‘just’ an alternative to credit cards and checking accounts for underbanked and unbanked.

This was a guest blog written by CoreCard Software, Inc.

About CoreCard Software, Inc. 

CoreCard Software, a leading provider of card management systems and processing services, offers an array of account management solutions to support the complex requirements of the evolving global financial services industry. The CoreCard® software solutions provide the market's most feature-rich platform for processing and managing a full range of card products including prepaid/stored-value, fleet, credit, debit, commercial, government, healthcare and private-label cards as well as accounts receivable and loans. Headquartered in Gwinnett Innovation Park in Norcross, GA with additional offices in India and Romania, CoreCard is a subsidiary of Intelligent Systems Corporation [NYSE Amex: INS]. For more information, call 770-564-8000 or visit www.corecard.com.

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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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Fixture or Fad – What’s YOUR Vision for Future of Payments?

Earlier this month, we reached out to some of our esteemed Prepaid Expo alumni to explore the future of prepaid and payments with us.

Here's what David Parker, Director, Polymath Consulting, foresees:

 

What’s your vision for the future of payments? 

How do you think NFC, EMV, mobile technologies, apps and wallets will impact prepaid?      

Mobile enablement – the access of your desired payment solution through mobile – is now a must-have.  On the other hand, payments through NFC off a phone will grow, but will remain a growing niche based on where you live, and who you are.  

What’s a fluke – and what will become a fixture?            

The vision of payments is one where I will still have a card, but it may also be contactless. Will I pay off my phone? Possibly, for some things such as transit. But the vast majority of my payments will be on the plastic card in my physical wallet for the next five years.  

Sure, online, I will have a nice one-click wallet solution backed up by my card of choice. But too many global mobile operators are blinkered and looking at closed-loop, agent-led solutions. They all quote M-PESA in Africa as a great example, but it had unique circumstances.  

Try naming five, or even one, other market globally where this model has over a 20% market share of payments.  What we are seeing is closed-loop wallet led solutions attaching prepaid cards to themselves for a variety of reasons:  Neteller, Skrill, Paypal, Hyperwallet and MPesa!

The challenge here that telcos need to consider how open and closed loop will sit side by side from the start, and not look to implement these solutions later on.  Only in this way can they ensure that the best solution is implemented on Day 1, not a mixture of systems bolted together later on. Is there a role for closed-loop models? Certainly. 

But, I would argue that open-loop is complementary to the closed-loop part. After all, a very large number of withdrawal requests from M-PESA small agents are rejected due to the agent not having available funds.

Meanwhile, the growth of Mobile POS is here to stay.  Post-Square, we have seen a number of other companies launching in Europe and more are planned for Africa. This growth in a merchant acceptance base will fly in the face of those that believe everything will be NFC and Mobile within a few years.  

In my view, the plastic in your wallet will be there for a long time, especially if you travel/do business across a large number of markets. While some  Mobile/NFC based solutions may gain traction in certain jurisdictions, the old piece of plastic - Mag Stripe or Chip and Pin – still has the widest acceptance of any digital format.    

What technology will consumers choose?           

Consumers will choose technology based on a number of factors. First is availability.  Many pieces of 'technology' are talked about, but in reality are only offered in a small number of locations/markets.  The exception to this is NFC, which we will continue to see increasingly rolled out not just in the first world but also in developing markets, such as Africa. (Note: the recent announcement of 1 million prepaid contactless MasterCard Cards in Kenya.)

So what will consumers choose to adopt? A mixture of what they are offered which adds real benefits to their lives, and has a real value-add proposition.  The easy answer is of course mobile, but only where specific value propositions are identified and offered.  

Sometimes these will only be for a small group of people.  The key to adoption by consumers is perceived value.  It is no good for a bank to say, “Wow look what we can do for you!”  It is all about what consumers value.

About the Author:

David Parker is Founder and Chief Executive Officer at U.K.-based, internationally working consulting and research firm, Polymath Consulting Ltd.   

Editor's Note: 

For 2013, Prepaid Expo is focused on the future of prepaid and payments. We want YOU to be a part of the conversation. Give us your answer – and we’ll publish the best submissions! 

 

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Welcome to the 25 prepaid facts blog series

 I'm Lovin It' — HM1(FMF) Fred Turner swipes his gift card in McDonald's new card machine, April 4. The new machine now allows customers to use debit, credit or gift cards to purchase food. (Photo: Wikipedia)

For the next several weeks, there will be a series of informative blog posts on the fascinating but evolving world of prepaid cards. Each post written will be an extension of a previous blog post: The “25 intriguing thingsyou should know about prepaid cards” post offered insightful information pertaining to the growing usage of prepaid cards. In the post, the facts included the abundance amount of money being filled on the prepaid cards, the high volume usage between the different incomes and the new way to pay for items.

With this new series, I will be able to go a little deeper into those fun facts and  offer some insights. The topics will be filled with variety with the hope that they will cause you to think about our changing world. The posts will make you wonder what it would be like if cash was virtually nonexistent (like the penny). Others will make you think how it would to interact with one another only using your debt or credit card. By interaction, I mean the idea of owing someone money and cash is not available, you may use your card. And imagine that only your phone would be used when purchasing items. These are just a few teasers for what is to come.

Prepaid is an ever expanding industry and the ideas mentioned before could be very possible for in the next few years to come. Granted, the extinction of cash is highly unlikely to happen in our lifetime (or is it?), however, stores using only gift cards and meters allowing people to use their cards instead of putting coins are already a reality. Most people now only carry their cards; they simply do not carry cash on them, they rather just use their card. Soon we all will wake up one day and things that seem so abstract to most people will become reality.

And, this is what the series will be about. So over the next few weeks I invite you, the reader, to be intrigued by the posts provided and imagine the way the world will be changing and the way the prepaid cards space is converging with other industries..

About the Author


Adam Wells studies English at Pace University and can be reached at AWells@IIRUSA.com. 

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25 Intriguing Things About Prepaid You Should Know

The Prepaid space is rapidly evolving and transforming, more than ever before. Here are 25 things of note, we thought you might find interesting:


Outlook


1. $82 billion. That's the amount expected to be loaded onto Prepaid cards in 2012. (Tweet this)

2. The amount loaded on prepaid cards in the U.S. is growing by 42% per year, will hit $167 billion in 2014. (Tweet this)

3. Mobile POS payments is expected to grow from $362.6 million in 2011 to $1.4 billion in 2017. (Tweet this)

4. The use of cash is predicted to decline 3% a year until 2015, (Tweet this) through 2015, the use of cash will decline by nearly $200 billion. (Tweet this)

5. Cash point-of-sale purchases is expected to drop to 23% by 2017. (Tweet this)

6. Prepaid cards are to overtake gift cards in terms of sales by 2014, reach $139.4 billion by 2017 (Tweet this)

Usage


7. Where prepaid cards are purchased makes a big difference in how they are likely to be used (Tweet this)


8. Consumers are using prepaid cards as a way to access wages, direct deposits increased by nearly 70% in 2011. (Tweet this)

9. An estimated $57 billion was loaded onto prepaid cards in 2011. (Tweet this)  

10. 22.1% of consumers likely to use prepaid cards earn between $66,000 and $100,000 a year. (Tweet this)

11. 56 percent of underbanked consumers in this recent study used their prepaid card for online purchases (Tweet this)


Mobile


12. About 15% of the U.S. population is underbanked. They are more likely to use their mobile device for banking. (Tweet this)

13. Mobile payments is said to overtake credit card payments by 2020. (Tweet this)


14. NFC-enabled mobile payments and contactless credit cards are positioned to rival cash by 2016. (Tweet this)


15. 1 in 3 underbanked consumers are likely to conduct international mobile money person-to-person (P2P) transfers. (Tweet this) 


15. More than 10 percent of mobile phone owners have already made payments using their phones. (Tweet this)

Unbanked/Underbanked


16. The share of households with checking declined four percentage points from 2010 to 2011. (Tweet this) 


17. 53% of Gen Y and 47% of underbanked consumers report that rewards would encourage their adoption and use of prepaid cards.  (Tweet this)

18. An estimated 35 million US adults (or 15% of the U.S. population) is underbanked. (Tweet this)

Cashless Society

19. By 2014, transactions conducted via wireless connections from phones world-wide are expected to total $1.13 trillion. (Tweet this)

20. Only 27% of all point-of-sale purchases in 2011 were made with cash (Tweet this)

21. Fifty-three percent of all person-to-person payments are in cash  (Tweet this)

22. In the UK, cash accounts for less than 3% of the “money" in use. (Tweet this)

Global Lens/Emerging Markets

23. The Chinese prepaid cards market valued over US$160 billion in 2011. (Tweet this)

24. Global mobile transactions grew to $241 billion in 2011, and are expected to reach $1 trillion by 2015. (Tweet this)

25. Growth rates in excess of 50% a year annually are expected in China and Poland on cards or through alternative payments channels. Japan has expected growth of 20% a year. (Tweet this)


About the Author

Valerie M. Russo is a Senior Social Media Strategist at IIR USA with a technology, anthropology, marketing and publishing business acumen.  She will be attending Prepaid Expo 2013 and covering the event live via Twitter and the Prepaid Expo Blog. She is a published poet and also maintains a literary blog. She may be reached atvrusso@iirusa.com. Follow her @Literanista.

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Prepaid Cards Might not be best for College Students

This post on the Baltimore Sun mentions that prepaid cards might not be the best option for college students trying to step away from owning credit cards. The reasoning behind this is because some prepaid cards carry "hidden" fees. Eileen Ambrose recently wrote in the Sun that perhaps another alternative would be to tie a debit card to a checking account, and once students can successfully manage that responsibility, to gradually move them into credit cards. Do you agree that prepaid cards are not the best option for college students?

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Prepaid Cards Help Reduce Costs when Spending Abroad

This article on MoneyHighStreet.com gives a warning to consumers who will be using debit and cards out of the country this Easter break. The article highlights how debit cards carry transaction fees and even foreign exchange conversion fees, which can be pricey.

An alternative to this is using prepaid currency cards. Compared to debit and credit cards, it can help you save on overseas transaction fees. Some cards that are offered now include: Caxton FX, FairFX, Travelex, Lloyds TSB, Indigo Traveller and ICE Traveller.

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ShopNPay enhances prepaid cards

ShopNPay announced that it's releasing five enhanced versions of their debit cards. Each card caters specifically to certain customers needs.

One of them is a general purpose reloadable card, the second is a loan card, the third a gift card and the fourth a remittance card geared at consumers interested in receiving money from abroad. The fifth new Sterling Bank card is a classic debit card which – like the four prepaid cards in the suite – can be used for purchases at over 70.000 Visa-accepting locations in the Philippines and over 29 million worldwide.

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Royal Bank of Scotland switches to Visa

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the largest debit card issuers in the UK and the USA will be switching to Visa for all of their debit cards. The switchover will begin in mid 2009. With debit cards use growing, this is a big setback for MasterCard, which has a smaller market share than Visa.

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Prepaid cards for a good cause

JP Morgan has been teaming up with law enforcement agents in Brooklyn and Chicago to provide prepaid debit cards for firearms. According to this article at Payment News, by offering prepaid debit cards throughout the these cities for turning in live fire arms at collection points such as churches, citizens received $100 in Chicago and $200 in Brooklyn. The program in Chicago, called “Don’t Kill a Dream, Save a Life” has brought in over 18,000 since the program started in 2006. A similar program brought in over 700 fire arms in Brooklyn. The guns collected are melted down and turned into hangers for use at dry cleaners.

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A Prepaid Debit Card Service for Brazilian Immigrants

The Journal Record reports that the Central Bank of Enid in the US is helping visiting workers from Brazil send money to their families back home by offering the Tal Card. The Tal Card is a reloadable instant issue card with a PIN and a personalized MasterCard. Funds can be deposited to the card via ACH Direct Deposit, Green Dot, and participating banks.

Central National Chief Executive Brud Baker praised Tal Cash, the Brazilian owned company marketing the Tal Card for understanding this market. He also mentions:

“That knowledge is what makes these programs successful. Combine that with the fact that cardholders can send money to Brazil and 11 other Latin American countries for $6, and you begin to see the positive impact it has on the Brazilian community.”

A Tal representative mentions that in the future the Tal Card will offer its customers insurance and medical plans.

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JPMorgan Chase Launches a Chase Workers Compensation PrePaid Debit Card

The ePaymentsnews Network reports that as an alternative method to paying injured workers, JPMorgan now provides insurance companies the Chase Workers Compensation Card prepaid debit card.

This prepaid card was designed to reduce costs associated with paper-based check distribution and to help improve managed funds distribution. Administrators can deposit funds electronically, track payments, and produce nearly twenty types of reports. Injured workers can access their funds at ATMs, pay bills online, receive cash back at retail locations, and use the cards anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted.

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No-Interest Prepaid Card is Launched in the UK for the Muslim Population

We’ve recently announced the release of the EonCap Islamic Debit MasterCard in our previous post, but now ePaymentsnews Network reports that Cordoba Financial Gold will release a prepaid MasterCard named Cordoba Gold which will specifically target Muslim users in the UK.

The Sharia forbids earning interest, and so this card has been deemed “Sharia-compliant” since it charges and receives no interest for money stored by its users. Also, the issuing company donates 10 percent of its profits to various charities across the UK. The Muslim population is over 2 million strong in the UK, and so a “Sharia-compliant” card was long awaited.

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MasterCard Launches an Islamic Debit Card

Business Week reports in this article that MasterCard and EonCap Islamic Bank have jointly launched what it deems as the world’s first Islamic debit card, the EonCap Islamic Debit MasterCard.

Fozia Amanulla, chief executive officer of EonCap Islamic Bank mentions:

"It is designed to appeal to both Muslim and non-Muslim individuals who prefer better financial control as the card ensures that purchases are automatically deducted from the cardholder's account and approved only if enough funds exist within the account. It helps track spending, comes with worldwide acceptance at more than 26 million locations and can be used at an ATM for e-banking."

This card will also work on the PayPass system, which allows consumers to swipe it on a terminal without actually leaving the cardholder’s hand. A recent survey conducted in 2007 revealed that consumers viewed the biggest benefit of contactless cards to be the convenience factor. There are currently 24 countries in Asia which have MasterCard PayPass trials and rollouts currently underway.

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Paypal Releases Prepaid Debit Card

Marketing Week reports that Ebay’s online payment provider Paypal is launching a prepaid debit card with Visa and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The Paypal Top Up Card can be used anywhere Visa is accepted. Paypal is targeting the card primarily to consumers who sell online since it enables them to spend the balances of the Paypal accounts offline. The card will cost £4.95 and can be reloaded at Post offices and Paypal retail outlets. This launch comes after Paypal’s release of their credit card in 2006.

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Heartland Payment Systems to Offer a Full Suite of Electronic Payment Processing Services

Business Wire reports that Heartland Payment Systems has partnered with Arkansas Community Bankers Association to provide its members banks with credit/debit/prepaid card processing, gift cards, payroll, and check management services.

Brad Wilson, director of bank alliances at Heartland mentions:

“We have seen firsthand how Heartland can help community and regional banks better serve their business banking customers. Our new relationship with the ACB will expand our network in the state, helping the banks’ customers manage their payments processing and enhance operational efficiencies.”

Heartland services more than 250,000 businesses nationwide, and now member banks have the added benefit of reaching Heartland’s business clients.

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