Brink’s Enters Payroll Card Business with NetSpend (Jan. 10, 2013)
Jan. 10, 2013
NetSpend Holdings Inc. has added another partner to its growing payroll card business. The Brink’s Company, which is best known for supplying security-related logistics and transportation services, will offer a new payroll card in partnership with NetSpend, which will serve as exclusive program manager and processor. The Brink’s Money prepaid card, set to roll out in the first quarter of this year, will be marketed to U.S. employers and also offered to Brink’s own employees, the company said.
“The introduction of Brink’s Money is our latest initiative aimed at growing our payments business,” said Tom Schievelbein, chairman, president and CEO of Brink’s. “Our partnership with NetSpend is a natural fit that enables us to leverage the Brink’s brand in the U.S. consumer market, where it is already a well-known symbol of trust and security.”
Austin, Texas-based NetSpend made its initial foray into the payroll card business in 2008, with the acquisition of Skylight Financial, a provider of corporate payroll and government benefit cards. Since then, NetSpend has made several additional payroll plays, most recently landing a deal in November with software maker Intuit to provide exclusive distribution and processing services for GPR and payroll cards linked to Intuit’s TurboTax and QuickBooks software.
The payroll card market overall continues to gain ground. A recent report from Aite Group projects the payroll card market will see a year-over-year compound growth rate of 19.9 percent through 2016, while the gross dollar volume loaded onto payroll cards is expected to almost double by that year, to $63 billion from $34 billion in 2012. The number of active payroll card on the market, meanwhile, is projected to jump to more than 9.1 million in 2016, up from just 4.1 million in 2012.
