LONDON—The rapid rise of prepaid across the globe is now also being spurred by corporations and governments.
In addition to the cards now appealing to upper-income consumers as a way to budget and limit fraud loss, as well as to the underbanked, prepaid is catching the eyes of major businesses, according to a new report.
That trend is now being seen overseas, according to Noel Moran, CEO of Prepaid Financial Services, who offered insights into the long-term trends driving corporate prepaid adoption,
Prepaid solutions are growing in Europe, Moran told Pymnts.com, as the view of prepaid in general is shifting away from a “subprime” mindset that may carry negative connotations, and toward a technologically advanced platform that can help a range of enterprises manage time and money more efficiently.
“This can be evidenced by the many governments and government organizations looking to use prepaid to solve a problem or create an efficiency,” Moran told Pymnts.com.
Moran said the plastic is being used to monitor employee spend in real-time. “We can provide real-time money in and out, and faster payments to any organization,” said Moran about Prepaid Financial Services. “We can now effectively turn any wallet into a bank account.”
For corporate clients seeking to operate with greater visibility into, and oversight of, corporate and employee-driven expenses, the prepaid solution may be an ideal one, said Moran, noting that corporate prepaid platforms are scalable and can be customized, with an eye on lowering administrative costs and improve reconciliation activities at the back end – all in real time fashion, and with the elimination of paper-based and time-consuming processes.
“Say the word prepaid and the image that may spring to mind is one of, say, a phone card, or perhaps another card, commonly used by the underbanked individual,” said Bill Hardekopf, CEO at Lowcards.com, Birmingham, Ala. “That image would be an erroneous one.”