If credit union members want to use a prepaid debit card and cannot get one from their CU, they mayhead down the street to get one from a community bank.

According to the American Bankers Association, 40 community banks have signed onwith its Community Bank Prepaid Program, an effort which seeks toprovide bank-branded prepaid card programs to community banks.

“Regardless of size, banks want to provide the latest productsin payment cards,” said Bill Kroll, president of BusinessSolutions, the ABA subsidiary that developed the program. “Manypeople see prepaid cards as a safe, convenient alternative to cash,and the banks offering these cards are seeing explosivegrowth.”

The Community Bank Prepaid Program was created with and isserviced by TransCard, a leader in prepaid card processing.

“Our business has doubled since June and active card counts areup 61% since the first of the year,” said TransCard CEO CraigFuller. “This is clearly a direct result of our innovative newbusiness model, which focuses on empowering financial institutionsand enabling them to offer prepaid products to their retail andcommercial customers and prospects. Commercial clients andconsumers have a trusted relationship with their local bank andthis leads to greater acceptance and usage.”