American Express is loading its entire prepaid card portfolio onto its Serve digital wallet and adding loyalty rewards and other deals. The company is expanding the abilities of its Serve wallet so that users will be able to make payments from their phones with or without a card.
When Serve is updated, all Amex prepaid card users will use the Serve platform, Dan Schulman, Amex’s group president of enterprise growth, said here Feb. 16 at the KBW cards, payments and financial technology symposium.
Prepaid will continue to be an important step in the adoption of mobile wallets because it will allow consumers to test the new technology without worrying about risking their entire bank account or credit account. This technology will continue to develop on a variety of platforms, but it will be the mobile wallets that most closely approximate the leather wallets that will win the early rounds.