Could you give some information about the utilisation of payment systems across the
world?

Payment systems are used to facilitate the distribution of monies in the most convenient and cost effective manner. All forms of commerce as well as government benefits distributions, require utilisation of payment systems. As time moves on payments are becoming borderless and tending towards real time - this gives massive benefits to the efficiencies of businesses but we equally requires vast degrees of co-operation between financial institutions and governments to enable it and deal with the risks involved. Payments are also device agnostic so whether it is internet, mobile, contactless or some other form of communication there should be no difference to the user and this again presents challenges in delivery as well as opportunities for differentiation and leadership.

What are the advantages of debit cards and pre-payment systems to consumers?

These are 2 different systems - debit requires a bank account behind it which may have credit facilities or not whilst prepayment is what it says and a genuine payment in advance. The advantages they have are on a number of fronts. Credit control is obviously up there as prepay has not credit risk and debit is limited by the fixed facilities of the business's bank account it is attached to. In either case it allows greater financial control by a business (or indeed an individual) of their financial affairs. Equally because there is no credit it does not affect the cardholders credit rating and can be given to virtually anyone so far more financial inclusion

How does the utilisation of debit cards and pre-payment systems contribute to a country’s economy?

Obviously as with many other indicators for the economy the use of these payment systems to facilitate payments will showa countries growth as payments generally indicate commerce and even though government benefit cards are government loaded they are then spent putting more money into the economy and facilitating growth.

Do you know of any pre-paid card examples in Turkey? Where does Turkey stand in terms
utilising this system?

Turkey has always been innovative in the consumer payments world and the like of Garanti Bank have been market leaders in prepaid solutions . GARANTI LAUNCHED THE FIRST PREPAID BUSINESS CARD IN TURKEY AND IN 2008 ANNOUNCED THAT ITS PREPAID CARDS WOULD BE FITTED WITH CONTACTLESS PAYMENT TECHNOLOGY. OTHER PREPAID PRODUCTS INCLUDE YAPI KREDI’S CONTROLLED WORLDCARD WHICH ALLOWS THE CARDHOLDER A SMALL AMOUNT OF CREDIT BASED ON THE AMOUNT LOADED ONTO THE CARD – IT IS AIMED AT CONSUMERS WHO MAY NOT QUALIFY FOR A FULL CREDIT.

IT IS WIDELY ACCEPTED THAT PREPAID IN TURKEY WILL SHOW STRONG GROWTH OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS. ONE OF THE MOST WIDESPREAD PREPAID PRODUCTS IN TURKEY IS THE CARD TRANSIT SYSTEM (KGS) WHICH ALLOWS CARDHOLDERS TO MAKE PAYMENTS FOR ACCESS TO TOLL ROADS IN TURKEY. RECENT LAFFERTY GROUP RESEARCH SHOWS THAT DEBIT CARDS ARE OVERWHELMING USED FOR FOR WITH CASH FROM ATMs IN TURKEY – WITH 97.8 PERCENT OF TOTAL BILLED VOLUME CARRIED OUT AT THE ATM THIS COULD BE SEEN AS KEY DRIVER IN THE ACCEPTANCE AND ADOPTION OF PREPAID CARDS That said prepaid solutions are still in their infancy globally and there is still a lot of scope for growth and innovation.

What are the most innovative approaches for pre-paid cards in the world?

I think many of these are in the mobile and transport arena as well as contactless. Garanti had the watch which could be used as a contactless payment tool the this is still seen as front line of innovation!TAIWAN’S EASYCARD , A CONTACTLESS SMARTCARD SYSTEM COMBINING BOTH A TRANSPORT AND BANKING PAYMENT APPLICATION, CAN ALSO BE SEEN AS A FRONTRUNNER IN MULTI-APPLICATION CARD MODELS FOR THE TRANSPORT SECTOR. The key for innovation is to see where payments are currently being made in a slow or difficult way and use prepaid solutions to facilitate a solution which is win win for all parties. This could be a reduction in cash being distributed like in the UK's asylum seekers card which is loaded daily and can only be used to purchase certain goods at a closed group of shops, or simply a payroll solution for migrant workers in the Middle East.