TSYS expands prepaid card market with $53 million purchase of Clarity Payment

<p>Credit card processor TSYS has purchased New York City-based Clarity Payment Solutions Inc. for $53 million to acquire sophisticated processing technology in the potentially lucrative prepaid card market.</p><p>"I would call it a significant strategic investment in that company," TSYS spokesman Eric Bruner said Tuesday. "This is a substantial leap forward in our prepaid processing volumes and gives us a competitive position that we did not have before."</p><p>Prepaid cards typically have set monetary values, such as a gift card purchased at a retail store.</p><p>Clarity's prepaid processing technology can be used in several areas: health care, payroll, insurance claims, branded gifts, corporate incentives, consumer promotions and teen money management, said Troy Woods, TSYS's president and chief operating officer.</p><p>TSYS, which closed the Clarity deal on Monday, already handled 12 million prepaid accounts, spokeswoman Danita Gibson-Lloyd said. That number should rise to 15 million by year's end, she said, a fraction of the estimated 240 billion prepaid payments the industry anticipates will be made this year.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x28681d4)</p>