FIS Prepaid Solutions

Hispanics are a large demographic in the U.S. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Hispanics make up approximately 16.3% of the U.S. population, with over 50 Million Hispanics in the U.S. The Hispanic market is an important one for many prepaid debit card issuers, as studies have shown that nearly 20% of Hispanics are unbanked.

Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (NYSE: FIS), recently announced the addition of their Mobile Financial Services application to Ready Financial Group’s stable of prepaid debit cards. According to FIS, the technological enhancement will increase READYdebit cardholders’ ability to manage their prepaid cards and finances via their mobile device.

GreenDot Corp. (NYSE: GDOT), the first major prepaid debit card company to go public in the U.S., posted strong earnings this week, reporting a third-quarter profit that topped Wall Street estimates. The results were boosted by a rise in card and interchange revenue. GreenDot forecast an 80 percent increase in gross dollar volume for 2010. As the economics behind prepaid debit cards are a relatively new concept to some readers, we take a look behind the numbers to see what drove this growth for GreenDot.

On October 27, 2009, Eufora, LLC was issued a U.S. Patent covering aspects of their prepaid debit card “credit builder” features. The patent is U.S. Patent No. 7,607,570 and is titled: “Methods of Establishing Credit”. The patent, apparently, relates to techniques used by Eufora in their Eufora Elite Credit Builder line of cards.

The company behind the READYdebit line of prepaid Visa cards, Ready Financial Group, Inc., today announced that it has raised a $7 million Series B funding round. The investment round was led by Rockbridge Growth Equity, a Detroit-based firm begun by Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert. Flybridge Capital Partners also participated, with partner Jeff Bussgang joining the Ready Financial board of directors.