Metavante and MasterCard Reload for European Expansion

MasterCard and Metavante have embarked on a European and possible world tour to slice into consumer cash usage—particularly where the modes of currency differ over short distances. Metavante Technologies Limited, the tech firm’s London-based provider of prepaid and debit card outsourcing, has made the first implementation of MasterCard rePower, the point of sale reload service for MasterCard and Maestro prepaid cards in Europe.

The product is in pilot phase with a full rollout scheduled for later in the summer. Dan Shannon, an svp for Metavante in London, says the move will allow both firms to expand in Europe by offering flexibility and easy access to merchant payments. “From a trip from the UK to Paris, for example, a person can reload before going on the trip, and you don’t have to worry about going to a bank or doing a forex transaction,” he says.

MasterCard rePower leverages MasterCard’s extensive international merchant infrastructure though its acquiring partners to deliver a European network of locations. Shannon says that despite the Euro, there’s still discrepancy in currencies across the continent—the UK, Poland, France and the Czech Republic all use different cash systems, for example.
“It’s a mess when you deal with cash in Europe,” Shannon says, adding there’s plans to eventually expand the reLoad program to North America and elsewhere.

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