Blackhawk Network and Monitise to Enhance Mobile Gift Card Purchasing

PLEASANTON, Calif. and LONDON, June 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackhawk Network, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAWK), a leading prepaid payment network, and Monitise plc (LSE: MONI), a global leader in Mobile Money solutions, today announced an agreement to make mobile gift card purchasing available to consumers through certain banks and financial institutions in the United States.  In addition, the companies intend to expand their relationship into additional markets.

Prepaid gift cards from Blackhawk Network's popular GiftCardMall™ will be available to consumers for purchase from participating banks and payment companies' mobile wallets, powered by Monitise.

With this new relationship, Blackhawk's extensive network will integrate into Monitise's mobile banking ecosystem, making it easier for consumers to purchase Blackhawk gift cards from popular retail brands via mobile. Easier consumer access to Blackhawk's network of content providers is expected to increase engagement with popular retailers and create new opportunities for customers to purchase directly from their participating financial institution's mobile banking platform.

The new partnership provides customers with access to gift cards on the go, making these purchases convenient, building loyalty with their preferred financial institutions, and opening the door to more innovative mobile offerings.

"We believe that consumer demand for gift cards is increasing around the world and with it the expectation that access to mobile offerings will allow consumers to make purchases whenever they want," said Tim Attinger, Group Vice President, Strategy and Innovation at Blackhawk Network. "By working with Monitise, we are helping its bank partners bring great retail brands and consumers together with new revenue opportunities and marketing applications. We are also excited about the overlap between certain of Blackhawk's global content and Monitise's international footprint and aspirations."

"As the demand for mcommerce continues to grow, it is vitally important for financial institutions to increase consumer engagement via mobile devices. This is why we have been so focused on enhancing our platform technology and partner network globally so consumers can bank anywhere, pay anyone and buy anything," said Frank D'Angelo, President of Monitise Americas.

D'Angelo added: "By partnering with Blackhawk Network, we're further integrating major retailers directly into Monitise's rapidly-growing network, linking financial services and retailer marketing into a seamless mobile experience for consumers. In the UK alone, we expect that millions of bank customers could have access to Blackhawk's content via our Mobile Money ecosystem." 

Blackhawk Network continues to build its extensive network of global content providers and distribution partners.

About Blackhawk Network

Blackhawk is a leading prepaid payment network utilizing proprietary technology to offer a broad range of gift cards, other prepaid products and payment services in the United States and 18 other countries.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements are indicated by words or phrases such as "guidance," "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "plans," "continuing," "ongoing," and similar words or phrases and the negative of such words and phrases. Forward-looking statements are based on our current plans and expectations and involve risks and uncertainties which are, in many instances, beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in or contemplated or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include the following: our ability to grow at historic rates or at all, the consequences should we lose one or more of our top distribution partners or fail to attract new distribution partners to our network or if the financial performance of our distribution partners' businesses decline, our reliance on our content providers, the demand for their products and our exclusivity arrangements with them, our reliance on relationships with card issuing banks, the consequences to our future growth if our distribution partners fail to actively and effectively promote our products and services, the requirement that we comply with applicable laws and regulations, the requirement that we comply with increasingly stringent money-laundering rules and regulations, reputational harm that could be caused by abuse of our prepaid products, failure to comply with, or further expansion of, consumer protection regulations, failure by us to comply with federal banking regulation, costs of compliance with or changes in state unclaimed property laws and regulations and tax codes, failure to maintain our existing money transmitter licenses or permits or failure to obtain new licenses or permits in a timely manner, other changes in laws and regulations to which we are subject or to which we become subject in the future, the intense competitive pressure faced by our business, fluctuations in our financial results from quarter to quarter, season fluctuations in our business, any decline in the attractiveness of gift cards to consumers, our ability to increase our revenues from prepaid products or services, including GPR cards, declines in consumer confidence, any interruption in the efficient operation of our transaction processing systems, any data security breach, litigation, investigations or regulatory examinations, fraudulent or other illegal activity involving our products and services, changes in card association rule or standards, any inability to operate and scale our technology, our failure to keep pace with the rapid technological developments in our industry and the greater electronic payments industry, changes in the telecom industry, assertions by third parties of infringement by us, our distribution partners or our content providers, our inability to adequately protect our brands and other intellectual property rights, settlement risk from retailers that sell our products and services, disruption caused by replacing any third party vendor, future acquisitions or investments, our ability to attract and retain key personnel, risks related to our international operations, and risks related to our ongoing relationship with Safeway. We undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect developments or information obtained after the date hereof and disclaim any obligation to do so. Please refer to our reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the registration statement filed in connection with our initial public offering

About Monitise

Monitise (LSE: MONI) is a world leader in Mobile Money - banking, paying and buying with a mobile device. Leading banks, payments companies, retailers and mobile networks utilise Monitise's technology platforms and services to securely connect people with their money.

Already over 20 million consumers benefit from our patented technology to 'bank anywhere', 'pay anyone' and 'buy anything' accounting for over $30 billion of payments, purchases and transfers annually. More information is available at www.monitise.com

SOURCE Blackhawk Network, Inc.