Prepaid cards, including payroll cards, remittance cards, gift cards and more, are a viable revenue stream for financial institutions of all sizes. The total spend on all prepaid products, for open-loop prepaid programs, was $14.1 billion in 2005, according to Mercator Advisory Group. Mercator further predicts that the prepaid market will top $43.8 billion by 2009, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 24.1 percent.

"We have spent years searching for the best partners and have navigated the legislative landscape so we could offer prepaid cards to both our customers as well as unbanked and underbanked individuals," said Brud Baker, President of CNB. "Now with Postilion, an exceptional partner in providing card management solutions, we are taking it to the next level, and offering other financial institutions our knowledge and understanding to help them deliver their own bank-branded prepaid card solutions."

CNB offers FDIC-insured prepaid card products, along with card issuing and card processing, to financial institutions that wish to enter the stored value card market. The card programs enable organizations to increase transactional revenue by targeting the 84 million underbanked and underserved individuals living in the United States and move them from transitional consumers to more traditional customers. CNB's successful prepaid card programs include a remittance product pilot program with a large retailer. The program is now being expanded to include over 300 of the retailer's stores.

"As a leader in open systems payment processing, Postilion can support new business opportunities for community financial institutions in self-service banking and payments that, in the past, may have been too resource intensive to pursue," said Baron Unbehagen, Vice President, Marketing and Alliances, Postilion Americas. "We are excited about CNB's prepaid card offerings based on Postilion solutions and the new revenue and services potential they can create for community financial banks and credit unions."