Unusually, the Unity Cards will not be issued by banks, but by relevant state institutions. The card will allow them to offer financial support while avoiding complicated logistics and administration, as well as ensuring effective and targeted issuing of support for the most vulnerable social groups.
The goal of the new card is to stimulate local economies, protecting funds from ‘leaking’ abroad and thus helping crisis-struck businesses. By issuing such cards, governments will be able to establish extra conditions for the use of funds found on them and limit payments to a specific geographical territory, certain stores or businesses. In this case, those that have suffered most from the COVID-19 pandemic. These could be the service or retail sectors, small businesses, establishments such as hotels, restaurants, bars, hairdressers, shops and other retailers who were forced to close their doors during the lockdown.
“One of the greatest challenges government officials dealing with economic stimulus face right now is rapid and effective distribution of resources. This card facilitates doing so, thus avoiding risks of fraud and ensuring that support funding really is used purposefully,” Robert Massa, the founder and CEO of Loyaltek, states.
The Unity Card prepaid card can be topped up with any desired sum; its expiry date can be set flexibly and adjusted based on its users’ needs. Card holders will be able to see the funds remaining on the card by making use of the QR code on the back of the Unity Card, and card issuing government institutions can monitor and analyse fund use in real-time.
