Prepaid cards

General purpose reloadable prepaid cards continue to evolve, exceeding the expectations of many, and in some ways are helping to shape the future of banking.

American Express is introducing one of the payments industry's first prepaid debit cards with cashback rewards in an age where the best rewards are typically reserved for the more lucrative credit card market.

Total System Services (TSYS), the Columbus, Ga.-based payment processor, has hired Patricia A. Watson to be senior executive vice president and chief information officer, effective Sept. 14.

The issues tied to its MoneyPak reload cards continue to plague Green Dot Corp., despite the prepaid card issuer's decision to discontinue the product back in 2014.

To eliminate its fraud-prone MoneyPak reload cards, Green Dot introduced a swipe-to-reload system last year that seemed more streamlined but added a new requirement — the customer had to have the card present to top it up with cash.

With regulatory scrutiny from the Card Act of 2009 and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, various prepaid and gift card products have come and gone in recent years. InComm's Vanilla Gift Card is not one of them.

Nearly a year to the date since he left his role as CEO of NetSpend, Dan Henry may have found the new "aha moment in payments" he said he would seek as the next chapter in his career.

Starbucks and American Express are both using cross-merchant rewards to boost their own volume, but with a very different philosophy driving each company's program.

Meta Financial Group in Sioux Falls, S.D., agreed to sell $3.1 million of common stock to a group of existing investors and reached a separate agreement to issue prepaid cards for a business partner.

Prepaid card issuer Green Dot Corp. has launched a unit called Green Dot Shanghai Software Technology Co. in Shanghai, China.