UK regulator fines Mastercard, others for prepaid cards cartel
Britain’s payments regulator on Tuesday fined five payments companies including Mastercard a total of 33 million pounds ($45.01 million) for cartel behaviour involving prepaid cards issued to vulnerable people on welfare benefits.
Mastercard received the largest fine of 31.56 million pounds ($43.04 million). The other companies fined were allpay, Advanced Payment Solution, Prepaid Financial Services, and Sulion.
According to Reuters, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) said the firms broke competition law by agreeing not to compete or poach each other’s customers on pre-paid cards offered by local authorities to distribute welfare payments to vulnerable people.
The cartel meant recipients of the cards – who included the homeless, victims of domestic abuse, and asylum seekers – could have missed out on cheaper or better-quality products, the regulator said.
The PSR previously announced in March last year it planned to fine the five companies in preliminary findings. It said on Tuesday it had concluded the investigation. The regulator said during the course of the investigation, all the parties settled and admitted to breaking the law.
“This investigation and the significant fines we have imposed send a clear message that the PSR has zero-tolerance for cartel behaviour,” said Chris Hemsley, Managing Director of the Payment Systems Regulator.
Formerly known as Financial Collection Services (FCS) Ltd, allpay was established in 1994 providing swipe card payment facilities to facilitate revenue collection for local government and housing associations. It began with two clients and four members of staff.
Managing Director and Founder, Tony Killeen, first came up with the idea of electronic bill payments whilst collecting rents on behalf of the council:
“It was very frustrating working with paper-based bill payment systems. I knew there had to be a better way. This gave me the idea of using technology to speed up the process. What I used to do on paper at the council, we now do with swipe cards,
Our system provides convenience and choice for the people paying bills and greater efficiency for any organisation collecting payments” he stressed.
Formerly known as Payment Financial Solutions, EML creates awesome, instant, and secure payment solutions that connect its customers to their customers, anytime, anywhere, wherever money is in motion
People are at the essence of everything we do. It’s about simple, tailored payment solutions for your brand and customers. We’re changing the face of payments, the company explained.
EML provides an innovative global payment solutions platform, with years of experience in delivering innovative and secure payment solutions. We work closely with businesses all around the world to solve their payment needs and create awesome customer experiences.
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