Noncash electronic payments continue to grow at rates exceeding global gross domestic product (GDP) and the rate of commerce in general, as consumers and businesses move to modern channels and as older systems relying on traditional payment methods are replaced. Not least important of these segments is commercial prepaid cards. A new research report from Mercator Advisory Group, Commercial Prepaid North America Open Loop Market Review and Forecast, 2019–2024 sizes up the U.S. and Canadian prepaid share and growth, taking into account the effect of the pandemic.

The full pandemic impact to commercial e-payments in 2020 is not yet known, but Mercator has previously forecast commercial credit card spend to decline by about 22% year-on-year from 2019 given the massive reduction in travel-related expense. Commercial prepaid, however, will continue to hold its own, accounting for nearly one-fifth of total commercial card spend.

“Uptrends and downtrends will contend for the market, and therefore results will be mixed,” commented Steve Murphy, Director of the Commercial and Enterprise Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group, the author of this report. “Among uptrends are FSA/HSA, payroll, business time and expense, and gift cards. Downtrends include government, travel, of course, and campus.”

This report is 14 pages long and has 7 figures and one table.