New concept displays real market traction as number of schemes increases dramatically in run up to 2006 festive season

Nomad, Europe's leading prepaid card processor has reported a massive expansion in both the number of sites offering branded prepaid gift cards and the sales of the cards themselves during the last quarter of 2006.

In 2005 Nomad was only operating two prepaid gift card schemes at Bullring, Birmingham and Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow. During 2006 the number of schemes operated by Nomad rose to 14 including eleven that launched in the last quarter, including Cribbs Causeway near Bristol, Bicester Village, The Grafton Centre in Cambridge and the Manchester Arndale shopping centre.

Bullring in Birmingham reported a 33% increase in the number of prepaid gift cards it sold in 2006 but the most impressive statistic comes from Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin where 20,000 prepaid gift cards were sold in December 2006. This works out at an average of one card for every minute of trading during the whole of the month.

Other sites offering prepaid gift card schemes through Nomad include: Festival Place in Basingstoke; Freshney Place in Grimsby and East Kilbride Shopping Centre.

Nomad a MasterCard approved processor worked with four different programme managers on prepaid gift cards in 2006, demonstrating the company's ability to provide a solution to meet different requirements. The company is currently working with a range of programme managers on delivering prepaid solutions from its portfolio of services.