ADP, the leading supplier of payroll and human resources (HR) services, has signed a five year deal with APS (Advanced Payment Solutions), Europe's leading prepaid card provider.
The partnership will enable ADP's clients to pay any of their employees electronically using the APS cashplus prepaid Mastercard in lieu of cheques or cash, thereby reducing administrative costs, increasing security and enhancing the transparency of the payment process.
Prepaid cards offer a solution to the 7 million people in the UK who don't have a credit or debit card and the 2.2 million who don't have a current account by providing them with access to the benefits of electronic payments, without having to open a bank account or undergo credit referencing. Prepaid is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the payments industry, with total spend on prepaid cards in the UK estimated to reach $34billion (£19billion) by the end of 2010[1]. Their popularity is driven by the financial freedom they offer to cardholders, who can benefit from the security, convenience and global acceptance of a payment card without requiring a bank account.
ADP has experienced increased customer demand for prepaid cards from employers that pay some or all of their employees by cheque or cash. The cards enable them to save on cheque costs, cash handling fees and can also help to decrease staff attrition. An employee's wages can be directly loaded onto the cashplus card and it can then be used wherever MasterCard is accepted in the UK or abroad in shops, online or via ATM machines.
"This is first time APS has partnered with a leading payroll provider and ADP was the obvious choice," commented Richard Wagner, Chief Executive Officer, APS. "As one of the most innovative payroll companies in the market, ADP can combine its leading technology with APS' groundbreaking service offering, providing an even more comprehensive and flexible payroll solution, which caters for both banked and unbanked employees."
Ian D'Cunha, Director Product Marketing and Development, ADP said: "The partnership with APS allows ADP's clients to further enhance their payroll operations, removing all the problems that surround cheque and cash payments including cost, security and the risk of fraud. This will be a huge benefit to some companies, making payroll processing a lot more efficient, whilst also helping to make them an 'employer of choice'."
While ADP offers online payroll and HR services and solutions to ease the payroll burden for businesses, APS is the only prepaid card provider to offer a gold MasterCard card with a £5,000 limit and an ATM withdrawal limit of £500. In addition to this APS' CreditBuilder service option offers credit disadvantaged customers help with building and improving their credit profile.
Phil Davies, Business Development Director, MasterCard Europe, said: "MasterCard is committed to driving efficiencies within the world of commercial payments. ADP's partnership with APS is an exciting development for the prepaid card industry and another milestone in driving costly cash and cheques out of the payment system, in favour of more secure and transparent electronic payments."