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Two United Kingdom-based firms, Altair Financial Services International PLC and Prepaid Financial Services Ltd., have a signed a deal to provide low-volume prepaid card programs for small and medium-sized companies, spokespeople from both firms tell CardLine Global. The venture focuses on establishing payroll, travel and expense card programs within two weeks for companies that "require less than 1,000 cards," a Prepaid Financial spokesperson says. Typically, prepaid card programs involve at least 10,000 cards and a longer time span to launch, the Altair spokesperson says. The open-ended venture calls for Altair to provide the cards along with processing services. Prepaid Financial will issue the cards through UK-based Newcastle Building Society, which also issues Altair cards. The cards will carry the MasterCard brand. Customers can load value onto the cards either online or at some 30,000 recharge locations operated by Payzone PLC, an Ireland-based payment-network operator.
