Optimal Continues Prepaid Push with MasterCard Pact in Europe (Dec. 10, 2012)
Dec. 10, 2012
Just months after becoming an issuer of prepaid cards, global online payments provider Optimal Payments has taken another step into the prepaid arena, inking a deal with MasterCard International Inc. in a bid to expand the company’s presence in the European prepaid market. The collaboration will be based around Optimal’s Net+ MasterCard prepaid card, which the company began issuing on Nov. 1. The new five-year deal with MasterCard will enable Optimal to “more quickly grow the Net+ program and actively pursue additional commercial opportunities,” Optimal said in a release.
Optimal, which was acquired by NEOVIA Financial Plc for $50 million in January of 2011, made a major move into the prepaid market in late August, when the company, which had previously focused on payment processing, announced it would begin issuing its own prepaid cards. Two months later, Optimal began issuing its Net+ MasterCard prepaid cards. The new deal with MasterCard will enable Optimal to develop new features for the Net+ card and expand the card’s availability throughout Europe, according to Danny Chazonoff, COO, Optimal Payments
For MasterCard, the agreement is a chance to capitalize on the European prepaid market, which Marion King, president of U.K. and Ireland, MasterCard, dubbed “one of the fastest-growing regions for prepaid.” The MasterCard deal follows Optimal’s pact last week with payment s processor Vantiv Inc. to offer Optimal’s international merchant clients expanded online payment processing in the U.S.
