Newcastle takes International Prepaid Cards Award accolade

Newcastle Building Society has beaten off strong competition from a range of household names to be named as the leading organisation in the international prepaid cards market.

The Newcastle won the Leading Prepaid Organisation category at the first ever Prepaid Awards, held at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London and organised by the Prepaid International Forum.

The Awards are designed to recognise organisations that are driving the prepaid sector forward, and attracted entries for companies including Marks & Spencer, Norwich Union, and JP Morgan. From a shortlist selected by a panel of industry experts, the invited audience of some 250 of the key influencers in the prepaid marketplace selected the Newcastle who beat competition from APS, PPT and Debenhams, to win the top award.

Part of the Newcastle's Strategic Solutions division, the Card Solutions department is one of the premier providers of MasterCard approved card programmes in the UK and Europe.

It runs a wide range of prepaid card schemes, including retail gift cards, travel cards, mobile phone cards and corporate incentive cards, and has enjoyed considerable commercial success since it was founded in 2005.

Kriya Patel, Head of Card Solutions at Newcastle Building Society, says: "To come out on top against a raft of the biggest names in the retail and prepaid card sectors is a fantastic achievement for us, and testament to both the quality of service our first rate team provides and the innovative ways of working that we have brought to the market.

"Prepaid cards are becoming more and more common in a whole host of areas, and it is a market in which we have the opportunity to secure further consistent, controlled growth over the next few years.

"We are already one of MasterCard's biggest providers in Europe, and this award will help to reinforce our position as a recognised world leader in the card solutions market."