Prepaid Cards Market: Trends, Strategies & Market Forecasts 2023-2028

• Market Dynamics: Provides a detailed assessment of market drivers and the key market trends within the market, as well as an in-depth evaluation of the future growth of the market and readiness for further disruption. This enables readers to understand the critical trends driving the growth of this market.
• Key Takeaways & Strategic Recommendations: Featuring major opportunities and crucial factors for prepaid cards highlighted across the landscape; making for important reading for key stakeholders, including card issuers, card networks and any other corporate institutions or financial institutions.
• Juniper Research Competitor Leaderboard: Key player capability and capacity assessment for 21 prepaid cards providers; positioning them as either established leaders, leading challengers, or disruptors and challengers. Our Competitor Leaderboard scores these companies on their size of operations in the space, their extent and breadth of market partnerships, the sophistication of their platforms and Juniper Research’s view on each company’s innovation and future business prospects. The company profiles included are the following:
  • American Express
  • BBVA
  • Blackhawk Network
  • CleverCards
  • Discover
  • Edenred
  • FIS
  • Fiserv
  • Green Dot Corporation
  • H&R Block
  • InComm Payments
  • JCB
  • Marqeta
  • Mastercard
  • Mint Technology Corporation
  • Netspend
  • Recharge
  • Soldo
  • Travelex Group Limited
  • UnionPay
  • Visa
• Benchmark Industry Forecasts: 5-year forecasts for the prepaid cards market, including the number of prepaid card users, the number of cards in issue (physical and digital), transactional volume and value (including a split for digital cards) and the total revenue from prepaid cards for providers. This data is also split by our 8 key regions and 60 countries as follows:
  • North America:
    • Canada, US
  • Latin America:
    • Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay
  • West Europe:
    • Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK
  • Central & East Europe:
    • Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine
  • Far East & China:
    • China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea
  • Indian Subcontinent:
    • Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan
  • Rest of Asia Pacific:
    • Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
  • Africa & Middle East
    • Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates

1. What will the value of the prepaid cards market be globally in 2028?
2. Which segments are the most important for vendors?
3. What are the main effects of digitalisation on this market?
4. Who are the leading vendors in the market in 2023?
5. What are the main opportunities & prospects for vendors?

Included in the Juniper Research Competitor Leaderboard: American Express, BBVA Compass Bancshares, Blackhawk Network, CleverCards, Discover, Edenred, FIS, Fiserv, Green Dot, H&R Block, InComm Payments, JCB, Marqeta, Mastercard, Mint Technology Corporation, Netspend, Recharge.com, Soldo, Travelex Group Limited, UnionPay, Visa.
 
Mentioned: 7-Eleven, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, AccountNow, ACE Cash Express, Aiia, Ajman Bank, Alipay, ALLTEL Information Services, Amazon, Apple, Argos, Asia Commercial Bank, Baffin Bay Networks, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Barclays, Bauli, BC Card, Brinks Money, British Airways, Brooks Running, BT, Carrefour, Central Bank of UAE, Certegy, China Construction Bank, Cisco Systems, Citizens Financial Group, Coinbase, Conferma Pay, Crédit Agricole, Currys PC World, CVS Pharmacy, Delta Air Lines, Diners Club International, DoorDash, Dynamic Yield, eFunds, Enterprise Ireland, Expedia, Fidelity National Financial, First Data, First Gulf Bank, Galileo Financial Technologies, GetYourGuide, Global Payments, Go2Bank, Goldman Sachs, Google, Green Dot, Gymshark, Hilton Worldwide, Home Loan Center, Inc, HSBC, InComm, Interac, Intuit, John Lewis, JPMorgan Chase, KAYAK, Klarna, KLM, Kmart, Liberty Bank, Marriott International, Mashreq Bank, Maybank, Mercedes Benz, Metavante, Microsoft, MLB, MoneyPak, MX, Myanmar Citizens Bank, Nandos, Netflix, NetPay Solutions Group, Netspend, Nipendo, Noor Bank, P2 Capital Partners, Parkopedia, Payback Rewards, PayPal, Pismo, Primer, Rakuten Bank, RapidPay, Recharge.com, Rêv Worldwide, Revolut, RuPay, RushCard, Safeway, Sage, Sainsbury’s, Samsung, Santander, Silver Lake, Société Générale, SoFi, Softbank, Spotify, Spruce, Square, Stables, Staley Credit Union, Standard Chartered, Student Loan Corporation, SunGard, TCN (The Card Network), Tesco, Travelex, TripLink, Trust Network, Uber, UnionPay, Vietnam’s Asia Commercial Bank, Virgin, Voi, Wagamama, Walmart, Wave Financial, WeChat, Western Union, WorldPay, WWE, Yapily.
 
 
 

The forecast suite includes 5-year forecasts for this market, including the following:

• Number of prepaid cards that are being issued annually.
• Transactional volume and value for these cards.
• Associated revenue for card providers.

Geographical splits: 60 countries
Number of tables: 33 tables
Number of datapoints: Over 15,000 datapoints

harvest: Our online data platform, harvest, contains the very latest market data and is updated throughout the year. This is a fully featured platform; enabling clients to better understand key data trends and manipulate charts and tables; overlaying different forecasts within the one chart – using the comparison tool. Empower your business with our market intelligence centre, and get alerted whenever your data is updated.

Interactive Excels (IFxl): Our IFxl tool enables clients to manipulate both forecast data and charts, within an Excel environment, to test their own assumptions using the interactive scenario tool and compare selected markets side by side in customised charts and tables. IFxls greatly increase a clients’ ability to both understand a particular market and to integrate their own views into the model.

The value of digital prepaid card transactions will exceed $3.98 trillion globally by 2028, up from $528.7 billion in 2023, an increase of 650% over the next five years.

By 2028, the value of digital prepaid card transactions will represent just under 60% of total prepaid cards spend, up from 15% in 2023, demonstrating the rapid growth of digitisation. It also reflects the greater use of digitally issued open-loop prepaid cards as loyalty rewards; replacing more traditional gift cards. Open-loop systems, where payments can be made anywhere cards are accepted, will lead to an increasingly blurred line between prepaid cards and gift cards. This will make the much wider loyalty market increasingly addressable for prepaid card vendors, compared with the closed-loop system, where payments can only be made at specific vendors.

• The number of prepaid cards issued digitally is expected to surpass 940 million by 2028.
• Prepaid cards are highly appealing to the unbanked; offering the functionality of payment cards without the need of an account with a financial institution.

Financial inclusion remains a key issue for the millions of unbanked and underbanked across the world. However, advances in digitalisation, smartphone availability, and the ease with which vendors can now issue prepaid cards digitally and instantly, mean that financial inclusion is within near reach of a growing number of users.

Financial inclusion use cases can significantly accelerate the success of prepaid cards, but vendors must keep the costs very low to ensure prepaid cards remain competitive for these use cases versus mobile money apps or central bank digital currencies