Country-specific Prepaid Solutions Under Spotlight
Experts To Probe The Prepaid Revolution
Prepaid Summit: Middle East 2014
in association with Visa
Conference and Awards Dinner
March 19 2014
Conrad Hotel, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai
Dubai UAE, February 2014: Increasing awareness of prepaid products is creating new consumer expectations and marketers must be swift to gear up and respond, according to Douglas Blakey, Group Editor for Consumer Finance at Timetric Financial Services.
Blakey was speaking ahead of the region’s fifth annual conference dedicated to the prepaid sector, Prepaid Summit: Middle East which will be held in Dubai’s Conrad Hotel on March 19.
The conference will focus on the emerging market trends, challenges and opportunities arising from the movement away from traditional payment mechanisms with global and regional experts highlighting industry innovation, best practices and projects.
Citing the Cards International reports, Blakey said that currencies, regulatory frameworks, governance, infrastructure and economic situations reflect differently on the use of prepaid as a smart alternative to cash, and that these drivers have specific influences on each market.
“The growing middle class here in the Middle East and elsewhere provides the foundation on which non-cash payment channels have the opportunity to grow and innovate. Prepaid products must deliver innovative solutions for both mass and niche customers while focusing on enabling easy access and transparent money management platforms,” he said.
The conference plenary sessions will detail the next steps in the prepaid business model development, while looking to understand the revenue model behind corporate and consumer prepaid options. Expert speakers will also explore if prepaid will overtake other payment forms, how investment decisions can be timed and how to spot growing demand and new business opportunities.
“Studying easy access, transparent money management platforms, timing investment decisions and understanding your consumer all contribute towards the success of this sector,” Blakey concluded.
More than 150 industry leaders will listen to the summit’s speaker line-up representing companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Citibank, Al Fardan Exchange, Majid Al Futtaim Group, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Emirates Islamic, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and other leading financial organisations in the MENA region. Visa is again supporting the event as title sponsor.
Registration for the pre-event workshops and summit can be done online at http://www.cardsinternational.com/event/prepaid-summit-middle-east-2014/attend/