2025 Prepaid Regulatory Update: Federal Changes Dominate the Conversation

The political and regulatory landscape domestically and internationally has featured few major direct changes to the prepaid industry in 2025. Trends point to the continued expansion of areas like gaming and gambling and healthcare spending products, whereas major changes for retail gift cards remained either few or in limbo. 

The general change in federal political forces had impacts on the prepaid world through broad-scale legislation and deregulation efforts. The so-named One Big Beautiful Bill’s details include changes that will positively and negatively affect prepaid programs spanning open-loop cards to nutritional assistance to other government payments such as Social Security. Major economic drivers such as interest rate policy, inflation, and cost-of-living adjustments remained tempered, imposing a low impact on program management. 

Global changes moderated again in 2025. The largest major impacts continue to revolve around cross-border payments and protections from fraud and money laundering. Major changes to program management appear minimal in the past 12 months.

Key questions discussed in this Prepaid market report: 

• What will be the immediate prepaid program impacts of the so-named One Big Beautiful Bill?
• Are states making progress in increasing consumer redemption options for gift cards?
• Will international regulatory stability continue in the short and long terms? 

Companies Mentioned: 

BNY, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, DailyPay, Direct Express, DraftKings, FanDuel, Immediate, Jackpot, Mastercard, Payactiv, PrizePicks, Underdog