Prepaid cards

Mastercard has partnered with Kenya’s government and several large national banks on the rollout of a chip-and-PIN enabled prepaid card targeting unbanked Kenyan citizens.

Certain cash-strapped consumers expecting a tax refund this year will be waiting longer than usual to get their funds because of a new IRS rule, prompting American Express Co. to expand the channels available to taxpayers looking to get their refund quickly through its Serve prepaid card.

Wirecard Card Solutions is taking over as the issuer of Bread4Scrap, a prepaid card program used by U.K.-based Payment Card Solutions (PCS) to distribute funds to scrap metal dealers.

Green Dot Corp.’s move to buy UniRush, the biggest independent prepaid marketer in a steadily consolidating industry, is the latest sign that remaining stalwarts with reloadable cards will need to look in new directions for growth as acquisition targets dwindle.

The Pasadena, Calif.-based prepaid card issuer expects to gain 750,000 active new cardholders in the deal.

The CFPB several years ago announced plans to introduce formal rules for prepaid cards. Issuers were optimistic, but when the agency finally published its rules, they exceeded 1,600 pages and contained some surprises.

Prepaid-card provider Green Dot Corp. is in talks to buy UniRush, a smaller competitor co-founded by Russell Simmons, the music industry entrepreneur behind rap label Def Jam, according to people familiar with the matter.

Engage Financial Technology, a provider of prepaid card programs for banks, healthcare providers, retailers and other organizations, has partnered with software provider Ensenta for a cloud-based approach to loading funds to prepaid cards.

The wheels are already turning on one of the biggest fleet card portfolio flips in North America, with South Portland, Maine-based WEX Inc. poised to take over in 2018 as the issuer of Chevron and Texaco fleet cards, replacing FleetCor Technologies, which is looking to make up revenue growth elsewhere.

Issuers of prepaid cards often say their products are a good tool for budgeting, but it's rarer to hear merchants market their own branded prepaid cards this way. Walmart is retooling its prepaid strategy to focus on saving in an effort to improve the financial habits of its customers.