Transaction Network Services (TNS) is launching a new electronic payments facility that will enable financial firms in the UK to provide customers with pre-paid plastic payment cards.
TNS says it will utilise its existing infrastructure to load the payment cards with funds. Customers can top-up cards either in a branch, at a retailer's point of sale, via dedicated kiosks, or over the telephone. TNS says the cards can also be given to children as they can be programmed to work only with certain merchant ID codes.
Stored value cards are aimed at customers that don't operate a bank account. Last September last year MasterCard teamed with Advanced Payment Solutions to launch Cashplus, a pre-paid plastic payment card aimed at the two million UK households that don't have accounts. MBNA and Royal Bank of Scotland have also released pre-paid cards in conjunction with retailers in the UK.
TNS says the new payment facility will also allow smaller financial organisations, unable to access or develop this technology in-house, to tap into the growing pre-paid card market.
Alan Stephenson-Brown, Business Development Director, TNS, says: "Introducing this new facility will enable banks, building societies and other financial institutions to broaden their offering and fill a need within their customer base."