EXCLUSIVE – Atlanta-based InComm Holdings and American Express will meet today to discuss next steps for their recently announced partnership on Amex’s prepaid card business, InComm President Phil Graves told Bank Innovation.

Graves declined to disclose details of the meeting, but said the goal is to map out ways to enhance the existing products of the prepaid business and discuss new features under consideration. What those features are, he declined to elaborate.

Late last week, American Express announced that it will sell its prepaid technology platform to prepaid technology services provider InComm for an undisclosed amount. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in Q1’18.

In addition to selling the technology, the partnership results in InComm becoming the exclusive distributor of American Express prepaid and gift cards, including Bluebird. It will also be the exclusive program manager and processor. American Express will continue to issue the cards.

Included in the transaction were AmEx’s prepaid products such as its U.S. gift cards, B2B rewards and incentives, tax disbursements and general purpose reloadable (GPR) cards.

In an email to Bank Innovation, American Express executive vice president of global prepaid and alternative payments, Stefan Happ referred to the partnership as the most “sustainable model” for American Express to have its foot in the prepaid market. He would not comment further on whether the deal points to Amex’s less than expected success in the prepaid market.

Choosing to sell its technology to InComm makes sense since its already been  providing Amex with the technology behind activating the card at point of sale.

In an email, Happ said of the deal:

The deal came about following several months of consideration about the best way to scale our prepaid and gift card business. InComm has been a longtime partner of American Express and was a natural fit for this deal. InComm already powers the cash reload network for our prepaid reloadable cards, and some of the back-end technology that powers our gift card and prepaid products at the point of sale. InComm will be able to generate scale efficiencies and synergies with its existing portfolios. Additionally, InComm has existing relationships with a large number of American Express’s prepaid and gift card distributors, which will make for a smooth transition with minimal disruption.

As for what the New York-based Amex has planned now that its freed itself of the prepaid business, Happ said the company will focus on  artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud computing and blockchain technology as areas of interest for innovation.