Following a successful pilot conducted with the Dutch BNG bank for over a year, Equens will expand its Prepaid Services in November 2007 with the new Prepaid Pluscard. Prepaid Pluscards bring several new target groups into reach that currently make the majority of their payments using cash, credit cards and vouchers. The Prepaid Pluscard will initially only be based on the Dutch domestic debit brand PIN, making it possible to use the card at all 275,000 PIN terminals, and all 8,000 ATMs in the Netherlands. Maestro and other international brands will follow early next year and transform the Prepaid Pluscard into an international solution.
Prepaid Pluscards have the functionality and acceptance rate of debit and credit cards with which consumers are already familiar. The difference is that prepaid cards are not linked to a personal or business account, but to a float account.
With this PIN-branded (Dutch domestic) debit card, Equens makes issuing a new card for banks and their corporate clients extremely easy. Cards can be ordered, topped up and deactivated via Internet Services or Web Services. Authorisation as well as clearing and settlement of the transactions will be performed using Equens systems. This minimises the effort required from the issuer. BNG is the launching customer.