News from the Wire

Blackhawk expands digital services

Wednesday, March 04, 2015 — 10:59:08 (EST)

Pleasanton, Calif., March 4, 2015 -- Blackhawk Network, Inc., a leading prepaid and payments network, announced today it has expanded its digital services platform to provide additional market-leading features to meet consumers' gift card needs. The digital services platform is now enabled with exchange services, which allows users to instantly sell their retail, restaurant and a large variety of other brands' gift cards. These enhancements mark the first application of Blackhawk Network's exchange services directly in a mobile wallet platform, and are available for developers and Blackhawk partners. We are showcasing these features in the free GoWallet mobile app on iOS, with support for Android expected to come soon.

The exchange services allow users to easily sell physical and digital gift cards right from their smart phone or tablet using the GoWallet mobile app. Users receive an offer quote for their gift card and, if accepted, they will receive the quoted amount loaded on a GiftCardMall.com e-gift, which they can use to buy their preferred gift card at GiftCardMall.com . More cash-out options will be coming soon.

Blackhawk Network's digital services platform is also announcing the ability to quickly and accurately scan gift cards directly into the wallet platform, using the GoWallet mobile app. The scan and optical character recognition feature utilizes the user's smartphone camera instead of requiring the manual input of numbers, making uploading of gift cards fast and more convenient.

These enhanced platform capabilities are just examples of ongoing innovation with Blackhawk Network's digital services and can be accessed with the GoWallet mobile app. They are also available for Blackhawk Network's partners through its digital services APIs.

"With these new features, Blackhawk's digital services continues to innovate the way consumers manage, spend and get great value from their preferred gift cards across retailers," said Tomas Campos, Blackhawk Network general manager, digital & emerging services. "Our digital services platform provides consumers an elegant way to input, manage, redeem and exchange gift cards. We are excited about the convenience and value our platform provides consumers and the opportunities this enables for our partners through our digital services APIs."

Any gift card, anytime, anywhere.

In addition to the exchange and card scan capabilities, GoWallet enables users to:

• Easily upload any gift card to GoWallet
• Access real-time gift card balances for supported gift cards
• Quickly redeem gift cards in-store and online through GoWallet
• Conveniently manage multiple gift cards in one place

For more information about Gift Card Mall, visit www.giftcardmall.com .

For more information about GoWallet, visit www.gowallet.com .

To learn more about Blackhawk Network, visit www.blackhawknetwork.com .

About Blackhawk Network

Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAWK and HAWKB) is a leading prepaid and payments global company, which supports the program management and distribution of gift cards, prepaid telecom products and financial service products in a number of different retail, digital and incentive channels. Blackhawk's digital platform supports prepaid across a network of digital distribution partners including retailers, financial service providers, and mobile wallets. For more information please, visit www.blackhawknetwork.com and www.giftcardmall.com .

The Green Sheet Inc. is now a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals. Click here for more information: bankcardlife.com?orid=33533&opid=1 .

Source: Company press release.