Accor Services and MasterCard Europe have announced a strategic alliance resulting in the creation of a new company, PrePay Solutions.
PrePay Solutions markets prepaid card-based solutions that enable corporations, public sector and financial corporations to reduce costs and enhance efficiency.
Both organisations and consumers benefit from the ease, security and convenience of card-based solutions in areas such as rewards and loyalty, gifting, expense management, and card payment for under banked people.
The joint venture makes Accor Services the majority shareholder at 67 percent, while MasterCard Europe holds a 33 percent stake in the company.
The new company is designed to combine the prepaid and electronic payments expertise of both organisations for business players looking to benefit from the fast growing €130 billion European prepaid opportunity.
By offering turn-key programmes, PrePay Solutions provides customers the scale and resources to deliver a seamless prepaid solution including marketing support, transactions handling and customer support services.
The flexibility of the MasterCard Worldwide Network to support prepaid solutions provides scalability options and speed to market in Europe.
The creation of PrePay Solutions is underpinned by Accor Services’ subsidiary PrePay Technologies – a UK market leader in prepaid cards – and acquired in 2007 by Accor Services.
PrePay Technologies’ nine-year strong marketing and operating experience has already helped to bring more than 20 million cards covering a broad range of prepaid solutions to the UK, and also includes a licence to issue e-money in 17 European countries.
PrePay Solutions will provide services to Accor Services and MasterCard, enabling each firm to develop solutions for its respective clients: corporate and government clients for Accor Services, banks and other financial institutions for MasterCard.
At the same time, PrePay Solutions will market prepaid solutions direct to its own customers such as retailers.
The PrePay Solutions Board of Directors is comprised of seven members: in addition to the Non-Executive Chairman and the Managing Director; Accor Services has three representatives on the board and MasterCard two members.
“Today’s announcement represents an important new step for our Services business,” said Gilles C. Pélisson, Director and Chief Executive of Accor. “This unique agreement with MasterCard – one of the most widely known payment brands – will allow us to deliver value for our European customers.”
“Prepaid is the fastest growing sector in the payments industry,” concluded Javier Perez, President of MasterCard Europe.
“Customer financial institutions and merchant partners across Europe are looking for turnkey prepaid solutions, particularly those focusing primarily on the private label prepaid segment as well as innovative offerings to deliver the value that their customers have come to expect.
“We believe the creation of PrePay Solutions, in conjunction with Accor Services, provides a compelling solution for our customers.”
