MasterCard, JPMorgan Chase and American Express are among the first companies to sign up to the Prepaid International Forum (PIF), a new inudstry body that has been launched in anticipation of a global boom in pre-paid commerce.
UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's, the VA merchant alliance and payment processor TSYS have also joined PIF, which is the first global association to focus on the entire pre-paid commerce industry – from retailers and providers of voucher services to financial institutions and telecoms companies.
The association aims to serve as a principal point of contact between companies in the pre-paid sector and government agencies, regulators, consumer bodies and the media.
Michael Lafferty, director of PIF, says: "Prepaid commerce has the potential to bring modern financial services to the unbanked, unemployed, under-privileged and expatriates; its success will be very important to society, and PIF will help drive that success."
PIF's first tasks will be to address concerns within the industry over poor consumer education of the benefits of pre-paid services.
One of three initial working groups established by PIF will look at consumer education and how the industry can help improve the public's understanding of the pre-paid commerce. The other two working groups will assist members with legal and regulatory issues, and business models for the industry.
PIF's activities will initally be focused on Europe - which it says will see the greatest growth in prepaid business activity over the next five years.
However PFI says a recently formed partnership with the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA) in the US will ensure that it can draw from experience in the American market.