News from the Wire

Surge in UK prepaid popularity drives business for Thames

Tuesday, November 24, 2015 — 11:01:54 (EST)

Essex, United Kingdom, Nov. 24, 2015 -- Thames Card Technology, one of the UK’s largest plastic card manufacturers, today reports significant growth in demand for its prepaid services, driven by the payment technology’s growing popularity in the UK. In excess of 20 new prepaid providers have selected Thames for the manufacturing and fulfilment of their prepaid card solutions, bringing its total number of UK prepaid customers to 65.

Prepaid has been the fastest growing form of payment for the past five years. Between 2012 and 2014, usage increased by 50%* and millions of adults across the UK use prepaid as part of their daily routines. Thames Card Technology’s Managing Director, Paul Underwood, says this trend is set to continue: “Prepaid has exploded in 2015. Since the start of the year, we have offered our experience to lots of new prepaid providers from our MasterCard and Visa certified facility in Essex. This will see us produce another 2 million contact and contactless cards per year, on top of the 250 million cards we already manufacture.”

Prepaid has prospered by offering the UK’s unbanked population, together with those that prefer an alternative to traditional banks, an opportunity to participate financially in the digital world, allowing them to shop online, pay bills and make ATM cash withdrawals, for example. Besides helping online shoppers mitigate fraud online, prepaid also helps credit-conscious consumers to maintain full control over their funds. This approach, coupled with the loyalty and cashback programmes that many prepaid cards offer, helps cardholders better manage their spending and even generate funds.

“Although prepaid is not new, we are witnessing a sea change in the way payments are being made,” adds Paul. “Cash is dying, mobile is still a fringe player and trust in credit is not what it once was. Prepaid’s flexibility is establishing it as a real competitor in the payments market and we look forward to working with each of our new customers throughout the manufacturing process and beyond.”

In February 2014, Thames Card Technology took steps to secure its position as the UK’s leading provider of prepaid debit cards by installing four colour laser printing machines to produce secure card carriers following a £3.2m investment from growth capital investor, BGF. The company has also overseen the installation of an additional state of the art secure vault which is used to store MasterCard and Visa prepaid products throughout the manufacturing and personalisation process.

*www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/2015/06/banking-on-prepaid

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Source: Company press release.