The platform is set to revolutionise the prepaid card industry by removing its biggest issue: the need to prepay.

The platform is based upon a single, partner-issued Visa or MasterCard, which is linked to customers’ existing payment sources via Tuxedo’s own PCIDSS-compliant technology platform. While cardholders can continue to preload their card, Tuxedo’s new ‘Live Load’ technology now enables customers to load cards in real time. Customers simply link their existing debit and credit cards to their payment card online, or via a mobile app, and Tuxedo draws the funds from the linked card in real time during the transaction process, removing the need to prepay completely. Adding, deleting and managing cards can then be done via a Tuxedo- or client-designed smartphone app, available on iOS and Android.

This platform builds on Tuxedo’s core business to date: providing bespoke, fully branded payment solutions to businesses to offer to their customers, whether those customers are other businesses or consumers. There is already considerable demand for the Live Load solution.

A “wallet in a card”
The potential applications of the technology are considerable. At its broadest level, it enables customers to link all of their debit and credit cards to just one card, creating a “wallet in a card”. Users will only need to carry a single card and will be able to decide which funding card to use and select it at any time via the mobile app.

Solving an industry wide problem
The need to prepay remains the biggest barrier to card usage within the Prepaid Card industry, so removing this requirement underlines the game changing potential of the technology.

’Live Load’ functionality has already proven a big hit in the travel currency market. In this sector, card products can offer a number of benefits, including acting as a currency shield. When used at a point of sale, a card draws funds from customers’ debit and credit cards, but the technology processes the transaction in the customer’s domestic currency, thereby protecting them from often expensive and wide ranging FX rates and fees. The technology was debuted on the significantly oversubscribed beta test of Travelex’s Supercard, which launched in May 2015 and removed all consumer FX and commission charges.

A versatile platform to unlock new opportunities
The loyalty and rewards sector will also likely benefit from early adoption of the technology. A single branded card can sit in front of customers’ traditional payment cards, enabling points, air miles or cashback to be earned on all purchases rather than only at participating retailers. For loyalty companies, the technology enables customers’ total spend data to be captured and analysed without requiring expensive, closed loop networks.

The versatility of Tuxedo’s payment platform and its ability to integrate quickly and seamlessly with legacy payment systems is also paving the way for previously closed systems to be opened up and made more flexible.

John Sharman, CEO of Tuxedo, said:
“Even in such a rapidly moving market, this technology changes the game. As well as taking the need to prepay out of prepaid cards for the first time, our platform has the ability to disrupt a significant number of markets from travel and loyalty through to more niche markets based on legacy, closed loop operating models.

“The technology also underlines that the UK continues to punch above its weight in the financial technology space. With so many new market entrants into the UK from overseas, we are proud to be among the first to take this game changing technology abroad and seek new opportunities to partner with, and add value to, a wide number of companies looking for versatile, flexible and robust payment platforms.”

Founded in 2006, Tuxedo has developed and delivered innovative payment solutions for a broad range of clients, including Tesco, The AA, MTV and Travelex, and has recently expanded into Europe, Australia, the Middle East and the USA.