Dancing to the Tune With the Black Carte TRACE Prepaid MasterCard®

LONDON, July 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Instant Issue Prepaid Card Designed for Urban Youth in French Market

The Black Carte Trace Prepaid MasterCard is proving to be quite a hit with the youth market in France. The card was designed specifically for the French market by Prepaid Financial Services (PFS), a leading global prepaid provider and MasterCard Prepaid Partner, in collaboration with CreaCard SA, an innovative creator and provider of turnkey prepaid solutions and TRACE TV, an international music TV channel and Media Group that broadcasts to 150 countries around the globe.

An Instant Issue prepaid card, the TRACE "Black Carte" card is a non-personalised, instant issue, Chip and PIN prepaid MasterCard available for purchase via a network of 32,000 retail stores across France. A personalised card can also be purchased online via the TRACE website. The card has been designed with the urban youth market in mind, in order to help them with day to day budgeting without over-spending, whilst also providing them with the flexibility and freedom to manage their money.

Noel Moran, Chief Executive Officer at PFS commented: "The TRACE management team are well renowned for their commitment to youth through their core businesses, as well as new initiatives such as TRACE Africa and the TRACE Foundation. They have actively supported causes and initiatives that contribute to the success of youth and help develop day to day skills. The TRACE prepaid card is designed to empower youth socially and financially, giving them the ability to make financial decisions and manage their personal spend and we are delighted to have partnered with them on this initiative."

The TRACE prepaid card is a MasterCard branded prepaid card that can be used online, in-store and over the phone at 33 million retail locations as well as to make withdrawals at 2 million ATM locations, wherever you see the MasterCard brand Acceptance Mark. The card can be reloaded with cash through the PCS network of merchant terminals and using pre-printed and merchant generated vouchers.    

Olivier Laouchez, Co-founder and CEO at TRACE, commented: "TRACE is very committed to young people, who make up the majority of our audience.  The launch of the Black Carte TRACE MasterCard reflects our company's core values: youth empowerment and a greater consideration of their aspiration; this prepaid credit card is the promise of true freedom for youngsters who shop online."

Philippe Aïm and Philippe Boulakia, Co-founders of CreaCard, commented:  "We realised that there was a real affinity between the key values underpinning prepaid cards and the Trace TV audience: freedom, security, universality. CreaCard is proud to have created and promoted, in partnership with PFS and Trace TV, a payment means that allows the youth market to be more social."

Launched in 2003, TRACE TV is a brand and international media group that provides contemporary music and sports entertainment content to a large and predominantly young audience via its core channels - TRACE Tropical, TRACE Urban and TRACE Sports. New channels such as TRACE Africa, TRACE FM and TRACE mobile have been added in recent years. TRACE TV is broadcast in over 150 countries through over 200 distribution contracts with digital operators across the world from the Caribbean Islands to Asia and the Middle East.

The PCS MasterCard, created and launched by CreaCard, has already been awarded as the Best International Prepaid Card in 2011 and 2013 by Prepaid365, the leading prepaid card portal, and is recognized for its capacity to provide on demand prepaid Cards under its own brand PCS MasterCard, Co-branded cards and white label cards in a BTOB or BTOC environment. CreaCard and its brand PCS MasterCard are the leader in France in the prepaid Cards sector and available in 32,000 point of sales.

PFS are an award winning global prepaid programme manager based in the UK. PFS provide unparalleled flexibility for designing, developing, implementing and managing white label prepaid card solutions. The PFS platform is integrated with multiple, globally certified, processing platforms with cutting edge technology.

Find out more about the TRACE "Black Carte" - visit http://trace.tv/blackcarte-trace.html

The TRACE prepaid MasterCard card is issued by Prepaid Financial Services Limited pursuant to licence by MasterCard International Incorporated. MasterCard and the MasterCard Brand Mark are registered trademarks of MasterCard International Incorporated. Prepaid Financial Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority under number 554603.

Notes to Editor

About Prepaid Financial Services:

Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) Ltd. is a multi-award winning global prepaid programme manager, e-money Issuer and a MasterCard® prepaid partner, operating out of the UK. PFS is authorised and regulated as an e-money issuer by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK and have passported our e-money license across the SEPA region to enable card issuance in up to 32 countries.

In addition to programme management and issuance, PFS also offer BIN sponsorship and processing services for entities running or planning to run prepaid programmes globally.

PFS manage multiple programme's processing millions of transactions every week and our products are utilised by Governments, Local Authorities, blue chip corporations, SME's and individual consumers utilising our cutting edge, secure technology.

Since our launch in 2008, PFS has rapidly established itself as a trusted, dependable and credible prepaid provider to a range of clients across the globe.

You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook at @prepaidfs and prepaidfs.

For more information, go to http://www.prepaidfinancialservices.com or call +44 (0)207 125 0321.

About TRACE TV

Launched in 2003, TRACE is a brand and an international media group that provides contemporary music and sports entertainment content to a large and predominantly young audience. Its core business is via TRACE Urban, Tropical and Sports which provide original content and pay-tv channels that are distributed in over 150 countries through 28 satellites and 200 carriage agreements.

• TRACE Urban (HD and SD): a music channel dedicated to urban music and culture.
• TRACE Tropical (SD): a music channel dedicated to tropical music and culture.
• TRACE Sports (HD): an up close, factual and lifestyle entertainment channel dedicated to sports celebrities (launch in June 2011)
• TRACE Africa: offers the best of contemporary African music hits

Trace develops or licenses its brand and content through all digital and multimedia platforms: web, mobile, radio, events, studio, apps etc. Olivier Laouchez is the Co-founder, Chairman and CEO with trace management.

For more information, go to http://trace.tv/

About CreaCard SA

CreaCard SA is a limited company with capital of 321 680 euros founded by Philip Aïm and Philippe Boulakia in early 2010. Since its inception, the company has raised more than five million euros, including the development of its prepaid card PCS MasterCard ® or the prepaid Co-branding "Black Carte Trace".

After more than 10 year career in international finance and telecom, Philip Aïm and Philippe Boulakia have the idea of ​​giving everyone the opportunity to receive a payment simple, modern, economic and accepted everywhere!

To give substance to their payment solutions, CreaCard moved closer to a major European bank and MasterCard ® now offers a solution for prepaid card solid, credible and fully secure with reliable partners and recognized.

For further information, please contact:
Tel: +33(0)1-80-96-16-13
Website: http://www.creacard.net or http://www.pcsmastercard.com
Email: spaillette@creacard.net