Big Picture – Over-Arching Worldwide Strategy – To build a prepaid debit card platform for the Western Hemisphere under the common brand name of “Ultima Money Card” – American Capital Partners will be the only prepaid card issuer with a footprint in all of the Americas to basic banking services to the hundreds of millions of people who are unbanked/undeserved:
In the U.S. to cover North America, with a less expensive and more comprehensive prepaid card product than Green Got or NetSpend that offers money transfer at 50% savings to Western Union or MoneyGram to serve primarily the 40 million people in the U.S. who have Latin/Hispanic origins and the 75 million unbanked people – with a better, cheaper card platform for money transfers and to make purchases with MasterCard Debit Card – good at 20 million merchants worldwide and on the web. The Ultima Money Card can be loaded at many of the 2.3 million STAR locations, at MasterCard Repower merchants – 125,000 and in the future in the “cloud” with check images from smart phones.
In the U.S., the prepaid market is $140 billion in loads and the money transfer market is $40 million sent to LAC annually; and
In Panama to cover Latin America and the Caribbean – “LAC”, initially purchase a micro bank in Panama to issue payroll/prepaid debit cards, make collateralized “micro” loans and take deposits for the hundreds of millions of people across LAC who are unbanked. In LAC, upwards of 80%-90% of the general population do not have access to basic banking services, loans or card products, with little or no competition.
Worldwide there are over 20 million merchants that accept MasterCard Cards and there are over $250 billion in money transfers.
In short, we will provide the “little guys” a more level financial playing field with low-cost alternatives to big banks with high fees and in most cases do NOT serve hard-working, low-income consumers in the U.S. and across LAC.
Risk:
The primary risk to the business’ success is the continuing need for capital to grow and expand across the Americas. Three millions is the funds required to start operation, with existing commitments from private equity firms to purchase capital stock when the company is in operations – 4-6 months.
All the product features are available from existing commercial processors, networks and service platforms, including STAR and MasterCard. All of the product services envisioned comply with U.S. regulations and the laws of Panama.
