Canada's prepaid industry reaches USD 5 bln in loads in 2019; drives fintech sector

According to a study commissioned by the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization (CPPO), the collective voice of the open-loop prepaid payments industry in Canada, and conducted by Mercator Advisory Group, in 2019 USD 4.8 billion in total dollars were loaded onto open-loop prepaid across corporate, government, and consumer-funded cards, a 12% increase from 2018.

General Purpose Reloadable (GPR) cards—used as a bank account alternative—recorded 10% growth in 2019, driven by new fintech companies offering digital banking and payment solutions on the prepaid platform.

Market trends spotted by the report include:

• Prepaid is enabling real-time pay for gig workers.
• Canada’s challenger banks continue to gain traction, with over 2 million accounts to date.
• SME solutions offered by challenger banks provide a big market opportunity for Canadian players.
• Fintech companies are harnessing the power of Digital ID companies to speed KYC/AML compliance processes when onboarding open-loop prepaid cards.
• Prepaid support business processes such as automated insurance claim adjudication and employee benefit payments.
• Amid the COVID-19 crisis, governments, and charities all over the world turned to prepaid for an immediate, inclusive means to distribute benefits and emergency funds.