(20 June 2007 – Europe) MasterCard, American Express and JPMorgan Chase have all signed up to the Prepaid International Forum (PIF), a newly created body which has been launched ahead of what is expected to be an international boom in pre-paid commerce.Europe is tipped to be the primary area of growth for pre-paid activity over the next few years but the body has also formed a partnership with the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA) in the US.
The PIF will focus on the pre-paid commerce industry in its entirety, including retailers and providers of voucher services as well as financial institutions and telcos.
It will act as a hub between pre-paid sector companies, government agencies, regulators, consumer watchdogs and the media.
British supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has added its signature as has payment processor TSYS.
‘Prepaid commerce has the potential to bring modern financial services to the unbanked, unemployed, under-privileged and expatriates. Its success will be very important to society, and PIF will help drive that success,’ PIF director Michael Lafferty said.
PIF will kick off by tackling address concerns over poor consumer education of the benefits of pre-paid services.