March 22, 2011 01:04 PM Eastern Daylight Time
VRL Financial News: Half of the World’s Adult Population Do Not Have a Bank Account, 2.5 billion People Remain Unbanked
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Leading provider of market intelligence for the financial services industry, VRL Financial News, will be showcasing exclusive research on the Prepaid market and the views of 35 speakers at its 2nd Annual Prepaid Summit in Dubai on the 22nd and 23rd March. Today just over half of the world’s adult population does not use banks or microfinance to channel, save or borrow money – they still trade in cash. There is a huge opportunity to move this traditional unbanked segment into prepaid cards.
In the last 12 months, prepaid card usage across the Middle East has continued to grow. The Middle East is a hot spot for travel, youth, online and mobile prepaid products with more than 60 million internet users and over 80 billion mobile phone users. The Prepaid Summit: Middle East 2011 will address the key issues impacting on the take up of prepaid in the region, combining Middle Eastern and international case studies with exclusive research on the market. Today the GCC has the opportunity to develop prepaid, especially with the expatriate communities which comprise of 85 percent of the skilled labour force in the Emirates and 40 percent in Saudi Arabia. The demographics of the region highlight the importance of prepaid cards as it will help expatriates to transfer money to their home countries.
In 2010, more than 150 delegates from 20 counties attended the first Prepaid Summit: Middle East, and this year promises to be even bigger, with a host of high profile speakers including; Bernardo Nicoletti, Global Expert in Prepaid, Altaf Ahmed, Vice President and Head of Payment Services and CRM at Emirates NBD; Randa Bdeir, Head of Electronic Banking & Cards Services, Bank Audi SAL; Scott Salmon, Head of Prepaid Global Market Expansion, Visa and many more insightful speakers from leading financial organisations across the UAE.
Key topics to be covered include:
- Promoting further prepaid growth through distribution
- Increasing customer awareness of prepaid
- The latest innovations in contactless, loyalty schemes and payment channels
- Using corporate cards for payroll, incentives and bonus payments
- Building a region-specific business proposition
For more details on VRL events please visit:
Contacts
Permalink: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110322006822/en/VRL-Financial-News-World%E2%80%99s-Adult-Population-Bank