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 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 acceptedalternative 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 said: “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 said:  “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.