Prepaid markets worldwide have expandedquickly the past decade, often surpassing credit and debit cardgrowth. Prepaid represents tremendous opportunities, which is ahighlight during today’s economic slowdown. But for the most part,the global prepaid market is fragmented with only a handful of realplayers able to compete in it. Some of these companies includeVisa, MasterCard/Travelex, Western Union, and CartaWorldwide.
But a recent announcement by EuronetWorldwide’s subsidiary in Europe might expand the list. Euronet 360Finance Ltd. just announced the launch of end-to-end prepaid cardissuing, processing and BIN sponsorship solutions in Europe.Euronet 360 Financce has an e-money license from the UK’s FinancialConduct Authority (FCA) which can be used across the Single EuroPayments Area (SEPA) territory (except Monaco).
Euronet is a global payment processor and solution provider to thebanking and payments industry with a broad footprint. It has 17,600ATMs, approximately 67,000 EFT POS terminals and a growingportfolio of outsourced debit and credit card services which areunder management in 38 countries. It also has a prepaid processingnetwork of about 680 thousand POS terminals at 339 thousandretailer locations in 30 countries as well as money transfernetwork in over a 100 countries. This massive presence will likelyprovide Euronet a significant advantage in competing in the globalprepaid market.