Canadian Open-Loop Prepaid Market Grows 27 Percent Over Three Years

The Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization (CPPO) today released its annual benchmark study, entitled Canadian Open-Loop Prepaid Market: 2017, revealing CAD$3.8 billion in total dollars loaded onto open-loop prepaid cards. In addition, there were significant increases to average loads per card in all 17 categories of corporate-, consumer- and government-funded cards. The open-loop market has achieved consecutive growth over the past three years, with a 27 percent increase between 2015 and 2017. The study was conducted by Mercator Advisory Group.

“The Canadian open-loop prepaid market has demonstrated dynamic growth across a number of key metrics including the number of cards purchased by consumers and the value consumers placed on each card,” said Tim Sloane, vice president payments innovation, Mercator Advisory Group. “This data indicates growing confidence in open-loop prepaid products by consumers, businesses and government agencies for a wide range of purposes.”

Key findings from the study revealed:

• CAD$3.8 billion in total dollars loaded onto cards in 2017.
• General-purpose reloadable cards (cards loaded by consumers for personal finance use) grew almost 10 percent to total CAD$2 billion.
• Open-loop gift cards grew by almost 12 percent with total loads of CAD$1.1 billion.
• The average funds placed onto corporate-funded prepaid cards grew by 66 percent and the average funds loaded onto consumer incentives and employee and partner incentive cards grew by 76 percent, reflecting a shift from one-time use payments to regular reloading of funds.

“Prepaid products continue strong and steady growth in the Canadian market with some exciting new penetration in transportation, entertainment and gaming,” said David Eason, CPPO chairman. “The big increases in average loads per card show how these products are becoming stickier with regular loads versus one-time use.”