The evolution of cards today is primarily depended on the shift in the spending behaviour of consumers around the world. Electronic cards issued by financial institutes provide a convenient instrument to do quick payment transactions. However, the banks today can vividly see that due to a number of market drivers the business model of cards has evolved from credit cards to debit cards and now it is shifting towards prepaid cards.
All the different kind of cards has an underlying business need that drives the growth of the card business for the bank. This business need is originated as a formation of variable market drivers, which are constantly changing due to innovation in the environment. The prepaid card business has a number of market drivers like:
1 Purchaser Convenience : Less risk involved
2 Security Preferences: Identity is safeguarded
3 Workforce Globalisation: Instant card to card remittances
4 Digital Distribution: Both personalised and non-personalised cards
5 Bulk Payments: For payroll and other payments
6 Internet Based Payments: For shopping and other transactions
Prepaid today has evolved as an instrument for both banked and unbanked segment of the population with the increasing distribution favouring the later. The realisation of 'pay before' by the consumer can be categorised as the catalyst for the increase in banked prepaid customer, where as low cost of converting unbanked into a relationship for the bank can be the reason of this promotion for unbanked.
Primarily there are two types of prepaid program, prepaid for corporate and retail. Under corporate prepaid program the issuer facilitates by servicing the employee of its corporate's customers. Today various flavours of corporate cards are available in the market eg Salary Prepaid Card, Gov Disbursement Card for G2P payments, Per diem Card, Incentive Card, Travel Charge Card, etc.
Similarly in the Retail Prepaid program, issuer directly targets the end customer for general use & spends or specialise promotion card. Namely Gift Cards, Remittance Cards, General Expense Card, Youth Card, Internet Card, Travel Wallets etc are the most prevalent flavour of retail prepaid cards today.
To have a launch a successful prepaid program, the program manger is required to plan and strategies for prepaid product design, effective card distribution, sale and customer acquisition, card activation process, customer servicing channels, card top ups and loyalty management to retain the customer.
About TPS: TPS is a leading provider of switching and payment solutions to financial institutions, card processors and telcos world-wide. With over 15 years of experience in the field of e-banking, TPS successfully empowers the self service infrastructure of over 130 institutions in 32 countries across Asia, Africa & Europe. Formed in 1996, TPS is positioned as a pioneer in the field of e-Banking in Pakistan and enjoys over 80% market share of debit cards market. TPS provides its customers a unique combination of technical and business expertise in the area of remote banking services, card business, payment processing, alternate delivery channel management, and consumer e-banking services. TPS has a specialised worldclass prepaid card product, IRIS PCMS, which is deployed at Network International which is a leading card processor in the Middle East and Africa region based out of Dubai. Pakistan's largest interbank shared switch, 1LINK, which connects 30 member banks of the country and making available 4,500+ ATMs and OMNIBUS, the central interbank ATM switch of Bangladesh are powered by TPS technology. Headquartered in Pakistan, TPS has a strong global distribution and support network through its strong reseller partner program covering over 70 countries world-wide.
For more information, please visit https://www.tpsonline.com