Executives at processor Total System Services can't predict which of the many existing mobile payments technologies will dominate the payments landscape of the future, but they plan to aggressively go after the processing business that follows.

"I don't know who is going to win in mobile payments, but we sure are going to benefit from it," said Dan Henry, CEO of TSYS' NetSpend prepaid card business, at the processor's May 13 analyst day in New York.

As more shopping takes place on e-commerce and mobile commerce sites, it will become much harder to live a cash-only lifestyle, he noted. "Ninety percent of commerce happens on the Internet today. As more and more commerce moves to the mobile phone, unless you get an account or you can move money electronically, you're going to be trapped out of that sector of the economy."

NetSpend also benefits from the growing number of companies getting into prepaid, because many of those companies learn quickly that they can't go it alone, Henry said. Western Union was once considered a competitor to NetSpend, but the company recently decided to let NetSpend take over its prepaid card program.

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