FTC looks to change improve prepaid card standards

In recent years, new technologies and products have dramatically shifted the payment processing landscape, improving the efficiency and accuracy of operations for many merchants. Among the most popular new products has been the prepaid card, sometimes referred to as general purpose reloadable (GPR) cards. Among the many benefits seen thus far include reaching a new demographic of consumers that had since been left behind - the underbanked. This population of people consists of, by some estimates, 15 percent of U.S. adults. The prepaid card industry has substantially boosted involvement of these adults and the ability of banks to track them more accurately. JDSupra reports that the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection has been working to decide if prepaid cards should be included under Regulation E requirements, which pertain to the error resolution procedures in other, older payment card processing industries. The FTC seemed to decide that the provisions of the general Regulation E will need to be adjusted substantially to account for certain unique aspects of prepaid cards, such as the fact that there will not always be adequate funding to correct the errors.