PaymentsJournal
SUBSCRIBE
  • Analysts Coverage
  • Truth In Data
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Industry Opinions
  • News
  • Resources
No Result
View All Result
PaymentsJournal
  • Analysts Coverage
  • Truth In Data
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Industry Opinions
  • News
  • Resources
No Result
View All Result
PaymentsJournal
No Result
View All Result

China’s Google Launches Mobile Wallet

Tristan Hugo-Webb by Tristan Hugo-Webb
April 17, 2014
in Analysts Coverage
0
0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedIn

By attempting to cover too much territory, this article ends up delivering confusion not clarity. Prepaid is complex all by itself, and trying to resolve the wide ranging perspectives of pure play prepaid providers, banks, and consumer groups simply results is an article that, in my opinion, misses the point.

This article gives consumer groups an opportunity to make their point:

“But the industry’s explosive growth, and large banks’ push into the market, has left some consumer advocates worried that low-income consumers will be trapped outside the banking system without the protections inherit in traditional checking and savings accounts.

The industry needs more oversight to ensure that players in the market aren’t simply profiting from low-income consumers by charging exorbitant fees, advocates say.”
Unfortunately this is a view that reflects a misunderstanding of the prepaid business, and the article does not explain that all open-loop prepaid cards are issued by regulated banks and must comply with a number of rules and regulations that extend many of the same protections.
The potential of prepaid to help the poor is recognized in another part of the article, but even then, it damns the industry with faint praise.

“Electronic cards are a good way to get people into the banking system, if they are low cost and operate similar to other accounts banks offer,” said Mark Pearce, director of the division of consumer protection at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. “Historically, prepaid cards haven’t measured up to that standard, but it has been an evolving marketplace.”

Treating prepaid as a single monolithic entity paints an over-simplified picture of what the prepaid industry is and how it provides value to cardholders. The underlying assumptions seem to be that free checking is ubiquitous and easy to obtain and that prepaid cards thus are always more expensive than accounts. Yet, as free checking accounts disappear, and customers begin to weigh their options, many opt for prepaid cards over checking because they feel they are getting a better deal. Rather than trying to get every opinion about prepaid cards into one piece, the article may have been better served by explaining the complexities of the market and explain that no one prepaid card, just like no one financial service product of any kind, can be all things to all people.

Read full story

0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedIn

    Analyst Coverage, Payments Data, and News Delivered Daily

    Sign up for the PaymentsJournal Newsletter to get exclusive insight and data from Mercator Advisory Group analysts and industry professionals.

    Must Reads

    Equinix Helps UK-Based Payments Provider Enable Faster, More Reliable Payments Processing

    Equinix Helps UK-Based Payments Provider Enable Faster, More Reliable Payments Processing

    January 31, 2023
    credit card tumbling

    How to Detect, and Prevent, Credit Card Tumbling

    January 30, 2023
    Why Businesses Need to Adopt Real-Time Payments as a Competitive Differentiator

    Why Businesses Need to Adopt Real-Time Payments as a Competitive Differentiator

    January 27, 2023
    faster payments

    Faster Payments Are Set to Revolutionize Modern Digital Payments

    January 26, 2023
    How AI can Help Manage Payments Risk in 2023

    How AI can Help Manage Payments Risk in 2023

    January 25, 2023
    cross-border payments

    How to Implement Effective and Innovative Cross-Border Payment Strategies

    January 24, 2023
    credit card experiences, digital payments, b2b payments

    Will Consumer-to-Business Payment Trends Drive B2B Global Growth in 2023?

    January 23, 2023
    Faster Payments Faster Identity Verification, connected car, payments

    2023 Predictions: Authentication, Digital Identity, and In-Car Payments

    January 20, 2023

    • Advertise With Us
    • About Us
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Subscribe
    ADVERTISEMENT
    • Analysts Coverage
    • Truth In Data
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Industry Opinions
    • News
    • Resources

    © 2022 PaymentsJournal.com

    • Analysts Coverage
    • Truth In Data
    • Podcasts
    • Industry Opinions
    • Faster Payments
    • News
    • Jobs
    • Events
    No Result
    View All Result

      Register to download the U.S. Bank report - Real-time payments