The rapidly expanding prepaid card industry is becoming extremely competitive. The marketplace is dominated by the likes of big industry names such as American Express, Master Card, Green Dot, Kaiku Finance, and Netspend, yet these incumbents are being increasingly challenged by companies like PayPal, Venmo, Square, and Apple. High user demand for prepaid cards in various markets and industries is propelling the space forward. From a bank perspective, however, having the ability to launch new card products is a good opportunity to differentiate in such a crowded market.

Simplicity and cost effectiveness

Prepaid cards are targeted at particular use cases composed of distinct customer segments or business processes that are in need of simplicity and cost effectiveness. In addition to providing an alternative to cash, prepaid cards offer customers safety, security, and greater ease of transaction - especially in a world in which digital payments are on the rise.

Prepaid cards also offer a payment tool for people with a poor credit history, helping to ensure financial inclusion for the unbanked population. Different types of cards have been issued in response, covering gifting, payroll processing, government benefit disbursement, consumer transit, travel expenditure, healthcare reimbursements, student groups, insurance disbursement, and employee incentive processing.

Flexible and innovative management

Flexibility is key in prepaid card issuing. In today’s crowded payments market, established card issuers and new market entrants require adaptable solutions that enable them to manage prepaid cards through all stages of their lifecycle. Banks issuing prepaid cards need to focus on both issuing open and/or close loop cards, as well as managing merchant acquiring for close loop cards and offering overall digital capabilities. This way banks will have a platform able to support their growth and business, both for today and tomorrow

HPS' PowerCARD payment platform is a comprehensive digital solution that provides flexible and innovative management of all its payment card services, such as issuance and processing prepaid cards, and merchant network management. PowerCARD also provides complete services for issuance and management of prepaid cards.

To know more about HPS and PowerCARD capabilities, please contact sales@hps-worldwide.com.