TransCard recently announced the launch of the First Citizens Bank Prepaid Programme heralding its continuing growth within the prepaid sector and adding to its growing list of prepaid programmes with financial institutions.
The agreement between TransCard and First Citizens Bank in Luverne, Alabama includes the provision and marketing of prepaid payroll cards, gift cards and generic everyday money prepaid cards through all their branches in Crenshaw, Butler and Lowndes counties. First Citizens Bank will also be participating in the new TransCard Prepaid RPM (Rapid Program Management) program, which pairs a select group of Master ISO’s with our financial institution partners to accelerate the growth of their prepaid programs.
Travis Colquett, First Citizens Bank VP and Compliance Officer, stated, “We are very excited to get our prepaid programs off to such a rapid and successful start. TransCard has a commitment to customer service, technology, and community development and to financial literacy that is in keeping with our history and mission.”
The news follows on from recent announcements from TransCard who in March this year also gained Near Field Communication (NFC) certification for Mastercard PayPass® contactless payment transactions which will basically allow financial institutions and corporate clients working with TransCard, the ability to offer contactless payment programs that are either stand-alone or connected to an existing TransCard prepaid card account.
Contactless payments are one of the fastest growing areas within the payments industry and Mastercard recently announced the launch of the Mastercard PayPass Wallet Services initiative to allow customers to make contactless payments through cards and mobile phones in stores with NFC terminals. In addition to this, those looking to shop online will also be able to save their details in the wallet and then make one-click purchases similar to the services offered by some online retailers like Amazon.com as well other online businesses such as Fiverr.
Earlier in the year, Barclaycard had launched their Smartphone payment app called Pingit and it would seem that Barclaycard are set to continue their advance on the mobile payments industry by recently announcing the launch of it’s ‘mobile’ contactless offering called PayTag. This is being positioned as the low-tech alternative to investing in an NFC-enabled handset. It is basically a contactless sticker that will enable customers at Barcalycard to use their mobile phone into a contactless payment device.
According to payment giant Visa, the number of contactless UK based point of sale terminals will rise by 50% to 150,000 this year. Asda, Waitrose, McDonalds, Boots, WH Smith and Tesco are just some of the firms to have commited to the technology.
