Prepaid Cards: Market Forecasts, Trends & Vendor Strategies 2022-2026

• Market Dynamics: Provides a detailed assessment of how the prepaid cards sector is evolving, leading segments, and what forces will influence this highly dynamic area.
• Future Outlook & Value Chain Analysis: Future outlook for the development of prepaid cards, combined with a full exploration of the value chain in this highly complex market.
• Juniper Research Competitor Leaderboard:  Key player capability and capacity assessment for 15 prepaid card vendors:
  • American Express
  • Blackhawk Network
  • CleverCards
  • Discover
  • Edenred
  • FIS
  • Fiserv
  • Green Dot
  • InComm Payments
  • Marqeta
  • Mastercard
  • Netspend
  • Soldo
  • UnionPay
  • Visa
• Benchmark Industry Forecasts: Forecasts for prepaid cards in issue, reloading volume and value, transaction volume and value, split by total market and digitally-issued cards, as well as fee revenue for the total market, along with splits by our 8 key regions and the 25 countries listed below:
  • Argentina
  • Australia
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • China
  • Colombia
  • Denmark
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Mexico
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Singapore
  • South Africa
  • South Korea
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • UK
  • US

1. What will the total value of the prepaid cards market be in 2026?
2. What segments are best suited to disruption from prepaid cards?
3. How will digital issuance and management change the prepaid market?
4. Where are the biggest opportunities for vendors in the market?
5. Who are the leading vendors?

Included in the Juniper Research Leaderboard: American Express, Blackhawk Network, CleverCards, Discover, Edenred, FIS, Fiserv, Green Dot, InComm Payments, Marqeta, Mastercard, Netspend, Soldo, UnionPay, Visa.
 
Mentioned: 7 Eleven, Accel, Accertify, Access Bank, AccountNow, ACE Cash Express, Advent International, Afterpay, Age UK, Alipay, ALLTEL Information Services, AlRaedah Finance, Aplazame, Apple, Argos, Auka, B4B Payments, Bank Liberty, Barclays, Battery, BBVA, Brighterion, Brinks Money, Carrefour, Central Bank, Certegy, Citi, Clarkebond, Credit Agricole, Credit Sesame, Currys PC World, Dawn, Diners Club International, Disperse, Dozens, eFunds, Expedia, Farmdrop, Finicity, First Data, Flutterwave, Gig Wage, Go2Bank, GoBank, Goldman Sachs, Google, Gymshark, HSBC, Iceland Foods, InComm, Instacart, Interac, Intuit Turbotax, John Lewis, JPMorgan, Kabbage, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Klarna, KLM, Kmart, Kurt Geiger, Magento, Maybank, Metavante, MLB, MLB (Major League Baseball), MoneyPak, Morning, Multiverse, Nandos, Netspend, Novus, O.Vision, OpenCart, PayPal, People Pay, PFC (Personal Finance Co, Premier League Football Clubs, RapidPay, Revolut, Riskified, RiskRecon, Rococo Chocolates, RushCard, Samsung, Santander, SAP Ariba, sarie, Sears, Secret Escapes, SessionM, Shopify, ShopWare, ShopWired, Société Générale, Staley Credit Union, Standard Chartered, Stash, SunGard, Tesco, Tink, Truaxis, Tutuka, Uber, VanillaDirect, Venmo, Verifi, Wagamama, Walmart, Wealthfront, WeChat, Western Union, William Blair, Worldpay, WWE, YAPEAL, Zelle.

Juniper Research’s Prepaid Cards forecast suite includes:

• Forecasts for prepaid cards :
  • Issued, split by total market and digitally-issued cards
  • Reloading, split by volume and value, as well as by total market and digitally-issued cards
  • Spend, split by volume and value, as well as by total market and digitally-issued cards
  • Fee revenue
• Interactive scenario tool allowing users to manipulate Juniper Research’s data for four different metrics.
• Access to the full set of forecast data of 33 tables and more than 8,000 datapoints.

Geographical splits: 25 countries

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 transactions made over prepaid cards will exceed $4.1 trillion globally in 2026; up from $2.3 trillion in 2021 - a substantial growth of 75%. By 2026, prepaid card transaction value will be just over 50% higher than those forecast for contactless payment transactions; illustrating the importance of this market. The growth in prepaid cards will be driven by the ongoing replacement of cash, as economies move increasingly towards digital payments.

• Prepaid cards are critical to ensuring that the unbanked are included in the rush for digital payments. Vendors must focus on building robust distribution platforms that can cope with issuing cards at scale and at low cost, or they will lose out to better-equipped vendors.
• The growth of the prepaid market will present a significant revenue opportunity for prepaid card platforms, with fee revenue reaching over $32 billion globally in 2026, from $22 billion in 2021. Focusing on critical capabilities, such as restricted authorisation, which enables issuers to specify where funds can be spent, will pay dividends in the longer term.
• While the US will account for over 43% of global transaction values in 2026, there are other significant opportunities emerging. China is seeing increasing prepaid use, and as international tourism recovers, prepaid cards for travel money can benefit. Emerging markets are also a key area of interest and platforms should form partnerships now in order to best exploit future opportunities.