Each year Mercator Advisory Group publishesbenchmarks on the size of the U.S. open-loop and closed-loop prepaidmarkets.
We have used industry surveys, public company reporting, andsecondary information to develop our estimates of the market size.While we do not reveal individual survey respondent data andtraditionally avoid rankings, we have been asked repeatedly who thelargest programs managers in the general purpose, reloadableprepaid card space. Because a number of companies have releaseddata on their programs, we feel that we can create a list of thetop ten program managers. This list (without individual programsizes) is presented below.
Top Ten GPR Program Managers ranked by dollarsloaded as of the end of 2012:
1. Green Dot
2. NetSpend
3. Emerald Card (H. & R. Block)
4. AccountNow
5. RushCard
6. Western Union
7. Chase Liquid
8. American Express Bluebird
9. Regions Now
10. BB&T
Many of these companies are relative newcomers to the prepaidspace, but their strong distribution networks and marketing effortshave allowed them to gain traction quickly. Even two years ago,there would not have been as many financial institutions on thislist, but banks have seen an opportunity in the prepaid space andare moving to make the most of it.
Also note that American Express’s ranking is based solely on itsBluebird card program. American Express has a larger prepaidportfolio, including cards distributed through Target stores andits Serve product. However, so far it has released information tothe public only about Bluebird. So its other cards were not takeninto account.
All of the companies on this list were given a chance to comment ontheir ranking. Mercator welcomes addition information andconversations with anyone on or off the list who feels they haveinformation relevant to the rankings presented here.