Prepaid Market Forecasts to 2011

November 2008
Boston, MA

Prepaid Market Forecasts to 2011

This latest report, the final of three reports that thoroughly benchmark the entire Prepaid Industry, provides a forecast of growth for all 33 Prepaid Market Segments which includes the load volumes and cards issued.

The report finds that the total for load volume across all 33 Prepaid Market Segments, including all Open and Closed Solutions, will reach $362.3 Billion by 2011. The Closed Loop market will represent $237.7 Billion of that total while Network Branded solutions will represent more than half of the entire market at $124.6 Billion.

While many segments within both the Open Loop and Closed Loop markets have seen lower growth rates in 2007, the fact remains that growth for Network Branded solutions continue to outpace closed loop by a significant amount. In 2006, Network Branded solutions were estimated to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 53%, but with the slowdown seen in this 2007 Benchmark the projected CAGR is now 42%. The Closed Loop market has also seen reduced growth and is now projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.94%, down from an estimated 8.1% in 2006.

Note however, that these growth rates only represent the average across all of the Network Branded and Closed Loop market segments, and averages can be very deceiving. Two Open Loop segments continue to grow at triple digit rates, and one Closed Loop segment saw a growth rate for more than 36%.

Tim Sloane, Director of the Debit Service for Mercator Advisory Group and the author of this report indicates that the accuracy of the forecast will depend to a large extent on how the current economic situation evolves and how consumer behavior shifts relative to Gift Cards:

"This research has tried to be practical about the likely performance of Prepaid solutions in 2008 and then takes a light hand through 2009 to 2011. While many prepaid market segments, such as all gift card related items, will see declines in growth rates due to the economy, others, including State Unemployment and Food Stamps are likely to see a regrettable increase."

One of the 90 Exhibits included in this report.

The report is 54 pages long and contains 90 exhibits

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