MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NovoPayment, Inc., Latin America’s leading prepaid program manager and service provider and parent company of Tebca and Servitebca, announced today that it has been granted a Principal Member license by MasterCard Worldwide for the issuance of MasterCard prepaid cards in the region, making it MasterCard’s first non-traditional institution in Latin America to receive the designation.



The announcement marks another milestone for NovoPayment, which was also first to issue Maestro/MasterCard branded prepaid open-loop cards to replace paper food and meal vouchers in Mexico, Venezuela and Peru, among other achievements. The license will allow NovoPayment to issue MasterCard payment cards directly. Nonetheless, the company plans to continue to work closely with existing and future bank partners, which it sees as key to the industry’s development.



“We are very pleased to be among the few privileged companies in the world to receive the Principal Member designation, not only because it will allow us to be more swift in deploying new programs and exploring new markets, but also for the recognition from a leader such as MasterCard and our fellow 2,400 members worldwide,” said Anabel Perez, president, CEO and co-founder of NovoPayment.



Founded in 2004, NovoPayment has quickly amassed the largest branded prepaid portfolio of any non-bank in Latin America, with multi-country programs in the areas of electronic benefits (EBT) such as meal and food vouchers branded Bonus® and Provis®, corporate cash management (fuel, payroll, incentives) and general-purpose reloadable cards (GPR) for growing unbanked and underserved market branded Plata®, as well as various prepaid programs targeted to mobile and pay TV operators, utilities, banks and retailers. The company, headquartered in Miami, Florida, operates in Mexico, Venezuela, Peru and Colombia under its subsidiaries Tebca and Servitebca.



About NovoPayment

NovoPayment® Inc., is Latin America’s premier prepaid card service provider and program manager, providing general purpose payments solutions for the region’s unbanked, as well as Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), payroll, incentive, cash management, fuel, mall and gift cards and other payments solutions for banks, utilities, telecommunications companies and government agencies. The company currently has more than 180 employees and more than 6,500 corporate clients. With a presence in Miami, Florida; Venezuela, Peru, Mexico and Colombia, NovoPayment’s portfolio includes more than 960,000 branded active cards (MasterCard®, Maestro®, Visa®, Visa Electron®), representing more than 30 million transactions and approximately $620 million annually. Among its accomplishments are the first pre-paid general purpose card in Latin America not to require a bank account and the first mobile P2P (Peer-to-Peer) funds transfer platform using SMS (short message service). For more information, visit www.novopayment.com.