(22 February 2010 – Global) American Express Company has sold its minority stake in American Express Incentive Services (AEIS), an independent issuer of American Express pre-paid products, to Maritz Holdings Inc, giving the company full ownership of the service provider.AEIS said, in a statement, that it is now fully owned by Maritz Holdings Inc, and American Express Company and its subsidiaries no longer have any ownership interest in the pre-paid card issuer.
For the past 13 years, AEIS has operated as a joint venture between Maritz and American Express.
Darrly Hutson, chief executive officer, AEIS, said that as a result of the acquisition AEIS’s operations will remain mostly as they do currently and clients and cardholders can expect business as usual.
John McArthur, senior executive vice president, Development of Maritz, said that the pre-paid card space is a growing market and an excellent opportunity for Maritz and AEIS to grow their business together.
The groups are looking forward to exploring and developing a wide array of new solutions for clients, Mr McArthur added.
Since the announcement of the take over, American Express Incentive Services has signed an agreement for TxVia, a pioneer in processing technology, to provide prepaid processing platforms based on TxVia’s platform-as-a-service (PaaS) delivery model.