LONDON (Reuters), -The UK payments regulator has fined five payment companies, including Mastercard (NYSE 🙂 a total 33 million Pounds ($45.01 Million) for their cartel conduct involving prepaid cards that were issued to people who are vulnerable and on welfare benefits.

Mastercard was fined the most at 31.56million pounds (or $43.04 million). Allpay, Advanced Payment Solution (Pepaid Financial Services), and Sulion were also fined.

According to The Payment Services Regulator(PSR), the companies violated competition law, agreeing to not compete with or poach their customers using pre-paid cards provided by local authorities for distribution of welfare payments to those most vulnerable.

According to the regulator, this cartel could have meant that the recipients of the cards, which included homeless people, domestic abuse victims, and asylum seekers, might not have been able to access better quality products or had their prices reduced.

In March 2013, the PSR announced that it would fine five companies for preliminary findings. On Tuesday, it announced that the investigation was over.

The regulator stated that all parties had reached an agreement during the investigation and have admitted to breaking the law.

Chris Hemsley (Managing Director, Payment Systems Regulator) stated that “this investigation and the substantial fines we imposed send a clear signal that the PSR does not tolerate cartel behavior.”

($1 = 0.7332 pounds)