Open Prepaid Market Performance

The report finds that the total spending across all 33 prepaid market segments, including all Open and Closed Solutions, grew by almost 21 percent from $110.7 billion in 2003 to $133.9 billion in 2004. Closed Solutions loaded $124.8 billion while Open Solutions loaded only $9.04 billion

While the Money & Open Gift Card Segment posted an impressive growth rate of 255 percent, moving from the $400 million in 2003 to $1.42 billion in 2004. This segment suffers instability derived from high risk associated with Federal and State legislation combined with low margins inherent to the product. The most stable and profitable Open segments are the Payroll, Benefits, Employee & Partner Incentives, and Consumer Incentive markets.