Spanish Post Office 'Correos' Partners With Prepaid Financial Services to Launch "CORREOS Prepago", Prepaid Card for Spanish Consumers

LONDON, October 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Correos, the postal industry leader in Spain, has partnered with Prepaid Financial Services (PFS), a leading European issuer and programme manager of physical and virtual prepaid card products, to launch the contactless Correos Prepago MasterCard® card in Spain. As part of the partnership, PFS provides the complete prepaid solution including BIN sponsorship, programme management, end-to-end technology solution and customer service support.

As the industry leader in the transportation of documents and parcels, Correos distributes nearly 3,600 million deliveries each year, reaching 28 million homes, companies and institutions. Furthermore, Correos has over 2,400 post office branches across Spain, providing customers with complementary services and financial products such as money remittance and now prepaid MasterCard cards.

The new Correos Prepago card, which is a general spend reloadable prepaid MasterCard available in EUR, was soft launched online in July 2015 and is available to Spanish customers at http://www.correosprepago.es.

The cards will be available to purchase via the national network of Correos post offices soon and can be loaded via credit and debit card online or at any of the Correos branches in Spain.

Providing a simple, safe and internationally accepted alternative payment method, without the need of being linked to a traditional bank account, the Correos Prepago MasterCard card has been designed specifically to help consumers budget effectively as only the amount loaded to the card can be spent.

The card is designed for usage by Spanish customers to pay for goods and services both online or on the high street and to withdraw cash from ATMs, wherever the MasterCard Logo is displayed.

In addition to the universal acceptance that the MasterCard brand brings, the product provides a high level of innovation by incorporating contactless technology. This will not only benefit cardholders by enabling them to make quicker and easier payments at the checkout, but Spanish traders will also benefit from reduced costs related to cash handling. According to industry sources, Spain is one of Europe's leading markets for contactless technology with over 600,000 contactless payments readers deployed and has a strong history of payments innovation.

Noel Moran CEO of PFS says: "PFS is delighted to have been chosen by Correos to deliver this game-changing prepaid programme in Spain. This partnership is a clear demonstration of PFS's reputation and profile within Europe as a leader in the end-to-end delivery of large scale prepaid programmes for high-profile corporations.

"PFS is pioneering the movement of prepaid payment products away from being just sub-prime and driving them into the mainstream and the Spanish market in particular, represents a massive opportunity for this. One of the most effective mechanisms for introducing new services to the mass market is to capitalise on the trusted relationships that consumers have with their own services providers, and post office prepaid programmes have been very successful in the UK and Italy."

Javier Cuesta Nuin, president of CORREOS Group says: "Correos Prepago is another step in our strategy to advance in the diversification and innovation of our services, and PFS have proven experience in the successful management of prepaid card programmes throughout many countries in Europe. This prepaid card initiative was born from the desire to provide our customers with solutions that make day-to-day living easier. In particular, we wanted to provide our customer base with access to a secure, simple payment card system, regardless of their existing banking relationship. This product with embedded contactless technology is a real pioneer in the Spanish market as it is being addressed to the whole public regardless of their socio-economic status."

The Correos Prepaid MasterCard card is issued by Prepaid Financial Services Limited pursuant to a license from MasterCard International Incorporated. Prepaid Financial Services Limited is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, registration number 900036 and registered office: 36 Carnaby Street London, W1F 7DR.

Notes to Editors 

About Prepaid Financial Services 

Prepaid Financial Services is a UK based, multi-award winning, physical and virtual prepaid card provider, e-money issuer and MasterCard® supplier. Authorised and regulated as an e-money issuer by the FCA in the UK, PFS has passported its e-money license across the SEPA region to enable card issuance in up to 40+ countries. PFS operates as an issuer, BIN sponsor, programme manager, technology provider and acquirer, making the company unique in the payments space.

As one of the fastest growing issuers in Europe, PFS currently has programmes live and active in 23 countries with the ability to transact in 20 different currencies. PFS products and cutting-edge technology platforms are utilised by governments, local authorities, blue chip corporations, SME's, MNOs as well as individual consumers globally.

Since launching in 2008, PFS has rapidly established itself as a trusted, dependable and credible prepaid provider to a range of clients across the globe and has been listed within the top 25 fastest growing technology companies in the UK for 3 consecutive years by the Sunday Times Tech Track 100.

About Correos-Grupo SEPI 

Correos belongs to Grupo SEPI, a corporate holding which includes a total of 16 state-owned companies in which it has a direct, majority shareholding participation, with a final workforce of about 73,000 professionals in 2014, and to which is attached the state-owned radio-and-television corporation, as well as one public foundation. Besides, it has direct minority shareholding participations in a further 10 companies, and indirect ones in more than 100 companies.

Correos is the first company in Spain, both in terms of its presence and territorial scope, with around 10,000 points for gaining access to its services. It has a human team made up by more than 50,000 professionals who work to provide comprehensive solutions and a wide range of high-quality products adapted to the different customer categories, both in packaging and direct marketing, and in postal services based on the new technologies and financial services.

For further information regarding Prepaid Financial Services and how prepaid solutions can benefit your organisation, contact +44-(0)207-125-0321 or sales@prepaidfinancialservices.com

Website: http://www.prepaidfinancialservices.com | Twitter: @prepaidfs

Media Contact
Heather Gray
Marketing Manager
Email: marketing@prepaidfinancialservices.com