Fintech companies will be a new kind of business in 2018
Fintech companies will find that they are a different kind of business in 2018 than they were in 2017.
Prepaid
Infographics: CPPO study reveals Canadian prepaid market grew 17%
The Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization (CPPO) released its second annual benchmark study, “Canadian Open-Loop Prepaid Market: 2016”, that shows 17% growth of the open-loop prepaid card market in Canada between 2015 and 2016.
Q&A with Bob Raffo, FirstView Financial
Joining FirstView Financial in July 2017 as president and CEO, Bob Raffo has quickly become a proponent of developing the paytech segment, the opportunities it presents to serve larger consumer and B2B bases and accelerate payment processes.
Obsidian and Arroweye reward consumers for shopping local with prepaid cards
Obsidian, a Colorado-based organisation that encourages consumers to shop local in their home community, has selected Arroweye Solutions for its Local First Card programme.
Q&A with Michael Parlotto, InComm
Michael Parlotto, VP, Emerging Technologies, InComm, gives the lowdown to Paybefore on the evolution of prepaid and what the future might hold for the industry.
Univision Mastercard Prepaid Card Hits Walmart Shelves
Univision Mastercard Prepaid Card is now available in approximately 300 Walmart stores in California, Texas and Florida. The move is part of the brand’s continued expansion into retail spaces in prominently Hispanic regions.
InComm expands transit business
InComm, a prepaid and payments technology company, continues to expand its tolling and transit payments business nationwide with the launch of the RiverLink Starter Kit.
Bento for Business Names Jeff Pomeroy VP of Product
Blackhawk Network veteran Jeff Pomeroy has joined the Pay Award-winning Bento for Business, a provider of employee expense management solutions for small businesses, as vice president of product.
Executive profile: Solana Cozzo, Mastercard
It’s a good thing Solana (“Sol”) Cozzo is high energy. When she’s not literally running or chasing after 3-year-old twins, she’s running Mastercard’s North American prepaid and inclusive growth business. It’s hard work when you consider that “the cardable opportunity is about seven times the current market,” she says.
Raise Pulls in $60 Million in Funding, PayPal Joins Party
Raise, which bills itself as the world’s largest gift card marketplace, has raised $60 million in a Series C funding round led by Accel, with participation from PayPal and existing investors New Enterprise Associates and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Mercator: Consumer Prepaid Sales Drop in U.S.
U.S. consumers aren’t buying as many prepaid cards, according to a new consumer survey from Mercator Advisory Group. The data show 56 percent of U.S. adults bought prepaid cards in the year preceding the June survey, down from 63 percent in 2016.
FirstView Financial Names Bob Raffo New CEO
Bob Raffo Jr. has joined the Pay Award-winning prepaid program manager and processor FirstView Financial as president and CEO.
Winners’ Showcase: 2017 Pay Magazine – Awards Issue Is Here
The wait is over. The 2017 Pay Magazine – Awards Issue is here. In this special issue, you’ll find out more about the programs, companies and two individuals that walked away with top honors from this year’s competition.
Blackhawk Network Acquires CashStar for $175 Million
Blackhawk Network Inc. keeps getting bigger. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based global technology company, has acquired digital gifting specialist CashStar Inc. for approximately $175 million in cash.
PSCU opens Midwestern Service Center in Omaha
PSCU, a credit union service organisation that supports more than 850 owner credit unions, opened its Midwestern Service Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
PIF Welcomes GPS
The Prepaid International Forum has added another member to its roster. Global Processing Services, whose managing director Suresh Vaghjiani is an Industry Achievement Award recipient in the 2017 Pay Awards, has joined the nonprofit trade group.
Green Dot reports net income jump in Q2, touts fintech deals, acquires secured credit portfolio
Green Dot Corp. reported strong numbers for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, including a 140 percent increase in GAAP net income to $19.3 million, up from $8.0 million over Q2 2016.
Sharing Funds across Families, Groups and Small Business with Prepaid and Mobile
Prepaid is having a renaissance thanks to real-time mobile and web account access that’s enabling a number of disruptors to offer prepaid solutions for a new set of customers.
Prepaid Veteran Jeff Lewis Joins Sutton Bank
As part of its overall payments expansion strategy, Sutton Bank has named prepaid veteran Jeff Lewis senior vice president, prepaid services.
paysafecard Enters UAE to Enable Online Payments with Cash
Prepaid pioneer paysafecard, part of Paysafe Group plc, announced its entrance into the United Arab Emirates. With its flagship prepaid solution, paysafecard will enable consumers to pay cash at vending machines and in retail stores for a prepaid PIN they can use to shop online.
M&A Update: IDT’s New Owner; ScanSource Buys POS Portal
Two recent deals further demonstrate the fertile M&A field in the payments space worldwide. London-based JAR Capital Limited has announced plans to acquire Gibraltar-based e-money issuer IDT Financial Services. Meanwhile, technology provider ScanSource Inc. has agreed to buy POS Portal, a Sacramento-based payment terminal and P2PE encryption technology provider that focuses largely on the SMB market.
Are Plastic Cards Headed for Extinction?
Probably not. Even so, the case for virtual prepaid accounts is growing stronger. A journey through the landscape—including a stop at a recent Apple conference—shows why.
2017 Pay Awards Results Are In
Today, June 14, Paybefore reveals the Best-in-Category winners in 21 categories and the two recipients of its highest individual recognition, Industry Achievement, for the 2017 Pay Awards.
Q&A with Andrew Buckley, Mastercard
When the self-described skeptic took over as global head of prepaid for Mastercard earlier this year, Andrew Buckley wasn’t quite convinced that the opportunities ahead were worthy of all the hype. Five months later and he’s among the converted, preaching the gospel of democratization—not just of payments but of innovation.
BitPay’s Visa-Branded Prepaid Card for Bitcoin Reaches Global Scale
BitPay, a 2017 Pay Award winner, said this week that it has released its BitPay Visa Prepaid Debit Card in 131 countries. The card “makes it possible for users to convert bitcoin into a spendable dollar, euro or pound balance” on the card in a matter of minutes, the company said.
Fly Away: Netspend Prepaid Card Offers United Airlines’ MileagePlus Rewards
Netspend has launched a Visa-branded prepaid card that enables cardholders to earn miles good for travel through United Airlines’ MileagePlus loyalty program. The product addresses one of the main issues facing prepaid providers—long-term cardholder retention.
UniRush Starts Paying Off for Green Dot in Q1
Green Dot’s acquisition of UniRush, a deal that closed in February, is already paying off for the company. As part of its first-quarter earnings release, Green Dot said that UniRush not only added $12 million in revenue during its first month of new ownership, but contributed to 6 percent growth in the company’s overall active card base, to 5.05 million.
How to Grow Prepaid through Financial Well-Being
Prepaid providers are at a crossroads: They can create products that carry relative high fees, or craft consumer-friendly programs that promote financial health. Here’s a case for doing the latter.
‘Mythbusting’ Payroll Cards
To coincide with its just released and first “Payroll Industry Scorecard,” CFSI is separating fact from fiction when it comes to payroll cards, which continue to face scrutiny by state regulators and the media.
Paybefore Reveals 2017 Pay Awards Winners
Paybefore announced the winners for the 2017 Pay Awards—the most prestigious recognition of excellence in the global prepaid and payments technology industry. Our expert judging panels have made their decisions. Now you can weigh in and help your favorites win the coveted Best-in-Category designation and a spot in the Pay Magazine – Awards Issue.
Executive profile: one on one with Joan Herman, Sunrise Banks
She witnessed the rise of electronic transactions and worked on the first shared ATM network card. Now this self-proclaimed pioneer woman has her sights set on prepaid and a mobile future.
What If You Could Make Prepaid More Profitable?
What does Russell Simmons know that banks don’t? GPR can be profitable. Find out how.
Urban FT taps Sunrise Banks for prepaid partnership
White-label digital banking services provider Urban FT is joining forces with Sunrise Banks.
Cachet, CBKC Take Mobile, Prepaid to Rebar Customers
Cachet Financial Solutions is working with Central Bank of Kansas City again. The two companies, which in March announced a partnership to bring mobile-optimized prepaid programs to community banks, now are working with Rebar Interactive to provide Select Mobile Money-Express, a platform that includes a Mastercard-branded prepaid card.
Webinar recap: for prepaid issuers, agility is a process(or)
In last week’s Paybefore Spotlight Webinar, attendees representing markets from across the globe said the No. 1 challenge to growing their prepaid businesses is differentiation. Find out what experts from Celent’s banking practice and global processor i2c had to say about creating dynamic prepaid products to compete in the changing payments landscape.
CFPB Proposes Delay, Potential Tweaks on Prepaid Rule
Prepaid stakeholders scrambling to meet the Oct. 1, 2017, effective date for the CFPB’s final rule on prepaid accounts can take a breath. The CFPB has proposed delaying the effective date by six months—and has signaled it might be open to tweaking some aspects of the rule.
Wirecard completes Citi Prepaid acquisition
Wirecard AG has finalized its acquisition of Citi Prepaid Services.
Prepaid Complaints Remain Low in Latest CFPB Monthly Snapshot
Complaints about prepaid products went down again from November 2016 through January 2017, with the CFPB reporting a monthly average of 206 prepaid-related complaints in that period, down from 237 per month during the same period a year earlier.
2017 Pay Awards Categories
Before you enter the 2017 Pay Awards, explore our 24 categories.
Prepaid Gains More Love from Canadians, but Bank Execs Might Have Worries
Reloadable prepaid cards are a hit with Canadian consumers, with 95 percent of them saying they are satisfied with the products in 2016. That represents an increase of 22 percentage points from 2015, and stands as the highest satisfaction rate for all payment tools, according to the second annual survey from the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization.
