Blackhawk Network Acquires CashStar for $175 Million
Blackhawk Network Inc. keeps getting bigger. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based global technology company, has acquired digital gifting specialist CashStar Inc. for approximately $175 million in cash.
Blackhawk Network Inc. keeps getting bigger. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based global technology company, has acquired digital gifting specialist CashStar Inc. for approximately $175 million in cash.
PSCU, a credit union service organisation that supports more than 850 owner credit unions, opened its Midwestern Service Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Prepaid International Forum has added another member to its roster. Global Processing Services, whose managing director Suresh Vaghjiani is an Industry Achievement Award recipient in the 2017 Pay Awards, has joined the nonprofit trade group.
Green Dot Corp. reported strong numbers for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, including a 140 percent increase in GAAP net income to $19.3 million, up from $8.0 million over Q2 2016.
Prepaid is having a renaissance thanks to real-time mobile and web account access that’s enabling a number of disruptors to offer prepaid solutions for a new set of customers.
As part of its overall payments expansion strategy, Sutton Bank has named prepaid veteran Jeff Lewis senior vice president, prepaid services.
Prepaid pioneer paysafecard, part of Paysafe Group plc, announced its entrance into the United Arab Emirates. With its flagship prepaid solution, paysafecard will enable consumers to pay cash at vending machines and in retail stores for a prepaid PIN they can use to shop online.
Two recent deals further demonstrate the fertile M&A field in the payments space worldwide. London-based JAR Capital Limited has announced plans to acquire Gibraltar-based e-money issuer IDT Financial Services. Meanwhile, technology provider ScanSource Inc. has agreed to buy POS Portal, a Sacramento-based payment terminal and P2PE encryption technology provider that focuses largely on the SMB market.
Probably not. Even so, the case for virtual prepaid accounts is growing stronger. A journey through the landscape—including a stop at a recent Apple conference—shows why.
Today, June 14, Paybefore reveals the Best-in-Category winners in 21 categories and the two recipients of its highest individual recognition, Industry Achievement, for the 2017 Pay Awards.
When the self-described skeptic took over as global head of prepaid for Mastercard earlier this year, Andrew Buckley wasn’t quite convinced that the opportunities ahead were worthy of all the hype. Five months later and he’s among the converted, preaching the gospel of democratization—not just of payments but of innovation.
BitPay, a 2017 Pay Award winner, said this week that it has released its BitPay Visa Prepaid Debit Card in 131 countries. The card “makes it possible for users to convert bitcoin into a spendable dollar, euro or pound balance” on the card in a matter of minutes, the company said.
Indian payment solutions provider and Pay Award-winning ItzCash Card Ltd. has a new main backer. U.S.-based Ebix, which sells on-demand software and e-commerce services, has taken an 80 percent stake in the company for $120 million.
Netspend has launched a Visa-branded prepaid card that enables cardholders to earn miles good for travel through United Airlines’ MileagePlus loyalty program. The product addresses one of the main issues facing prepaid providers—long-term cardholder retention.
Green Dot’s acquisition of UniRush, a deal that closed in February, is already paying off for the company. As part of its first-quarter earnings release, Green Dot said that UniRush not only added $12 million in revenue during its first month of new ownership, but contributed to 6 percent growth in the company’s overall active card base, to 5.05 million.
The Bancorp Inc. has closed the sale of its European prepaid properties to Neptune International Ltd. The news comes amid a strong quarter for the financial holding company, which reported a net income of $8 million for the first quarter of 2017, compared with a $10.9 million net loss for the same period last year.
Prepaid providers are at a crossroads: They can create products that carry relative high fees, or craft consumer-friendly programs that promote financial health. Here’s a case for doing the latter.
To coincide with its just released and first “Payroll Industry Scorecard,” CFSI is separating fact from fiction when it comes to payroll cards, which continue to face scrutiny by state regulators and the media.
Paybefore announced the winners for the 2017 Pay Awards—the most prestigious recognition of excellence in the global prepaid and payments technology industry. Our expert judging panels have made their decisions. Now you can weigh in and help your favorites win the coveted Best-in-Category designation and a spot in the Pay Magazine – Awards Issue.
She witnessed the rise of electronic transactions and worked on the first shared ATM network card. Now this self-proclaimed pioneer woman has her sights set on prepaid and a mobile future.
What does Russell Simmons know that banks don’t? GPR can be profitable. Find out how.
White-label digital banking services provider Urban FT is joining forces with Sunrise Banks.
Cachet Financial Solutions is working with Central Bank of Kansas City again. The two companies, which in March announced a partnership to bring mobile-optimized prepaid programs to community banks, now are working with Rebar Interactive to provide Select Mobile Money-Express, a platform that includes a Mastercard-branded prepaid card.
In last week’s Paybefore Spotlight Webinar, attendees representing markets from across the globe said the No. 1 challenge to growing their prepaid businesses is differentiation. Find out what experts from Celent’s banking practice and global processor i2c had to say about creating dynamic prepaid products to compete in the changing payments landscape.
Prepaid stakeholders scrambling to meet the Oct. 1, 2017, effective date for the CFPB’s final rule on prepaid accounts can take a breath. The CFPB has proposed delaying the effective date by six months—and has signaled it might be open to tweaking some aspects of the rule.
Wirecard AG has finalized its acquisition of Citi Prepaid Services.
Complaints about prepaid products went down again from November 2016 through January 2017, with the CFPB reporting a monthly average of 206 prepaid-related complaints in that period, down from 237 per month during the same period a year earlier.
Before you enter the 2017 Pay Awards, explore our 24 categories.
Reloadable prepaid cards are a hit with Canadian consumers, with 95 percent of them saying they are satisfied with the products in 2016. That represents an increase of 22 percentage points from 2015, and stands as the highest satisfaction rate for all payment tools, according to the second annual survey from the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization.
For those disappointed that President Trump’s regulatory relief executive orders wouldn’t extend to prepaid providers—and others covered under the CFPB’s final prepaid accounts rule—Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) may be coming to the rescue. On Feb. 1, Sen. Perdue, along with six co-sponsors, introduced joint resolution 19 that provides “congressional disapproval” for the rule, and which says that “such rule shall have no force or effect.”
The CFPB is “putting the prepaid industry on notice that companies will face the consequences if consumers are denied access to their money or to the services they pay for and on which they have the right to depend.” In its first enforcement action against prepaid providers, the bureau on Feb. 1 announced that UniRush and Mastercard will pay a combined $13 million for a 2015 service disruption that left cardholders without access to their funds.
It’s official: Green Dot will spend at least $167 million to buy UniRush.
TSYS-owned NetSpend is negotiating with the Federal Trade Commission over the agency’s allegations that the prepaid provider deceived cardholders and denied or delayed their access to funds, TSYS Chairman and CEO Troy Woods told analysts this week in a fourth-quarter earnings call. TSYS also announced that NetSpend is working on diversification, including the launch of a demand deposit account later this year.
Wirecard is using prepaid as a bridge to online payments for its boon mobile app.