Prepaid International Forum (PIF) today announced a successful first year of operation for the global trade body’s India Chapter with sustained momentum and increasing awareness of the role the association plays in promoting the development of prepaid in India.
Launched in August 2009 under the patronage of one of the world’s largest companies for payment services, TSYS, the Chapter has a rapidly expanding membership representing issuers of prepaid products and services, payment networks and other industry stakeholders. The Chapter actively represents the interests of all members with regulatory bodies and the media and helps to remove the uncertainty of which business models to adopt. Amit Sethi, Managing Director of TSYS in India and South Asia said “TSYS recognises the merits of PIF India as an open forum acting as a collective body to share best practices. The launch of PIF India in 2009 represented global recognition of India as an emerging prepaid market with tremendous potential for growth and financial inclusion. TSYS as one of the world’s leading prepaid processors and technology provider is well positioned to bring its experience in global prepaid markets to help implement local industry guidelines and solutions to drive the Indian prepaid market forward.”
Member organisations will convene for the Chapter’s Annual General Meeting in Mumbai on 12 August to reflect on the association’s evolution and set the agenda for the year ahead. Among the Chapter’s priorities is to maintain its dialogue with the industry’s regulator. Commenting on PIF India’s interaction with the Reserve Bank of India Sachin Khandelwal, Senior General Manager, ICICI Bank and Chairman of PIF India said, “With industry wide representation of banks, prepaid issuers and payment associations, PIF India works to formulate and agree ways in which the business environment could be improved to stimulate the industry for the next leap in prepaid business in India.” In recent months the Chapter has actively sought clarification on the legal framework for prepaid in relation to KYC (Know Your Customer) norms, co-branding guidelines and multiple loading.
Commenting on the opportunity for prepaid in India, PIF Chairman and Co-Founder Chris Reddish said, “In India as with other emerging markets prepaid offers a low cost payment solution for achieving financial inclusion and satisfying the growing need for cashless transactions”. Referring to the development of the association, he added “In a very short space of time PIF India has demonstrated that it has a very important role to play in helping to shape and influence key changes to develop the prepaid industry in the country.”
As PIF India embarks on its second year of operation the Chapter will build on its firm foundations to meet its objectives. Ultimately PIF India aims to increase the number of organisations running successful prepaid programmes in India, enhance consumer awareness and improve the reputation of prepaid across the industry. Pipeline initiatives include the implementation of a prepaid awareness campaign, the launch of a data aggregation service to provide benchmark data to member banks and programme managers running prepaid card programmes and the expansion of the association’s working groups to cover mobile payments and emerging vertical segments of the prepaid market.
About PIF India
Prepaid International Forum (PIF) launched a regional Chapter for India in August 2009 under the patronage of one of the world’s largest companies for payment services,TSYS®. Members include ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, American Express, HDFC Bank, TSYS, Yes Bank, Union Bank of India, State Bank of India, ItzCash, TimesofMoney, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Visa, Edenred and Oxigen.
About PIF
Prepaid International Forum (PIF) is a global not-for-profit trade association established in 2007 to represent all parties participating on a commercial basis in the prepaid economy.
It is dedicated to the progression of prepaid commerce around the world and acts as principal point of liaison between the prepaid economy and government agencies, regulators, consumer bodies and the media. It is focused on the entire prepaid world and facilitates the development of cross-industry guidelines and codes of practice. It has over 60 member organisations spanning four continents.
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