Quantcast

Amex to Merge Prepaid Cards with Digital Wallet

FEB 16, 2012 12:13pm ET
Print
Email
Reprints

Correction: Amex plans to use a PIN in place of a card number for mobile ecommerce. An earlier version of the story incorrectly said this approach would apply to the point of sale.

American Express Co. will release an updated version of its digital wallet Serve that will include all of its prepaid products, as well as incorporate deals and loyalty rewards.

Amex launched its Serve stored-value account last year as a way to attract customers that normally would not qualify for its credit cards. Serve is meant to function as a digital wallet, though it can be used at the point of sale with an attached debit card.

Separately, Amex launched a prepaid card that has almost no fees.

When Serve is updated, all Amex prepaid card users will use the Serve platform, said Dan Schulman, Amex's group president of enterprise growth, at the Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Cards, Payments and Financial Technology Symposium in New York on Thursday.

"We will turn our platform from a digital payments platform to a digital payments and commerce platform," he said.

Amex will also allow users to make purchases from a mobile ecommerce site using a PIN in place of a longer card number.

In an interview with American Banker, Schulman said that there will be multiple alternative ways for users to authenticate their transactions. "We have a plan in place," he says.

After the loyalty program is live, "we will round out the platform with money management tools," he says.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

SEE MORE IN

RELATED TAGS

 

 
Kumbaya Moment for Banks, CUs; Brown-Vitter as WMD: Week's Best Quotes
The most notable quotes from American Banker stories of the previous week. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations in the Comments fields at the bottom of each slide.

(Image: Fotolia)

Comments (0)

Be the first to comment on this post using the section below.

Add Your Comments:
You must be registered to post a comment.
Not Registered?
You must be registered to post a comment. Click here to register.
Already registered? Log in here
Please note you must now log in with your email address and password.
DAILY ENEWSLETTER UPDATE

A Newsletter featuring Bank Technology News' top stories plus special reports and data

This feature displays payments industry news and analysis from American Banker sibling brand PaymentsSource. Registration is required; for more information contact customer service.

TWITTER
FACEBOOK
LINKEDIN
Already a subscriber? Log in here
Please note you must now log in with your email address and password.