BROOKINGS, S.D. - ATMIA's Debit Council announced in a news release that it has released the industry's first set of international best practices for stored value or pre-paid debit cards.
Some industry experts believe that stored value represents the next killer application for the card industry.
The best practices cover a market overview and brief history, definitions and categorization of stored value products, business, cost and profit drivers, useful Web sites for this dynamic new sector, best practice recommendations for consumer protection and education, and for product distribution and fraud prevention. ATMIA's stored-value products manual also outlines the current regulatory challenges for the U.S. stored-value card market.
One of the key markets for the expanding stored-value card sector is the unbanked population. It is estimated that there are two billion unbanked people worldwide. Stored value cards offer these groups access to many important features of traditional bank accounts, such as the ability to store funds and pay bills, without having to meet credit requirements or provide unwanted personal information.
