Recognising the substantial growth potential of Europe’s prepaid
card market US payments services and technology provider, Metavante
Technologies has acquired Nomad Payments, a UK provider of prepaid
and debit card processing services and software, for about $58
million. Metavante’s international operations unit will absorb
Nomad which will operate as Metavante Technologies Limited.

“Acquiring Nomad presents Metavante International Group with the
opportunity to establish a European center of operations, with a
blue-chip client base, multi-currency capabilities, high-volume
processing platform, proven business model and an established
European sales channel,” said Metavante’s president and CEO, Frank
Martire.

Donald Layden Jr, president of Metavante International Group,
noted that Metavante’s experience in prepaid processing is
complementary and easily transferable to the UK market.  “It
also offers a rich opportunity to expand the prepaid processing
value chain by offering synergistic Metavante services such as
closed loop and loyalty programmes and fraud monitoring to UK and
European markets,” said Layden.

Indicative of market potential, research and advisory firm
TowerGroup estimates that in 2010 prepaid card volume in Europe
will be €75 billion ($110 billion), a 600 percent increase compared
with 2005. During the five-year period the number of prepaid cards
in circulation is estimated to increase by 1,000 percent to 375
million. 

Established in 1992, Nomad has been funded by a venture capital
syndicate since 2000. In July 2007 Nomad announced that it was
handling over 1 million transactions per month in the UK and
Ireland, up from about 20,000 transactions per month 12 months
earlier.