John joins ALCB from Bank of Ireland, where he was Head of UK Cards Business. He has also previously worked at Egg Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc, and has 20 years of experience in financial services.

John will play a major role in helping to further develop the bank's prepaid cards business, providing strategic leadership in sales & marketing. He is the latest addition to the Prepaid Cards division at ALCB, highlighting the bank's ongoing commitment to becoming a major provider of prepaid cards in the UK and Europe. John will form part of the leadership team for prepaid cards, reporting to James Le Brocq, Director of Prepaid Cards, who was recruited in May 2007 from his role as Director of UK Credit Cards at Barclaycard.

Commenting on his new role, John Schratz said: "Prepaid cards are on the verge of exponential growth in take-up, with predictions that the number of cards in circulation in Europe will grow at over 110% per year for the next four years, with 2.3 billion transactions by 2010. With Alliance & Leicester already at the forefront of this market and looking to develop its proposition, it is an exciting time to be joining the team."

James Le Brocq, Director of Prepaid Cards at Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank said: "I am delighted to be able to welcome John to Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank. His experience and ability will allow us to continue to develop and market our prepaid cards to a wide variety of sectors, including corporate organisations, insurance houses, and retailers, as well as public sector organisations such as local authorities. We have great ambition for the prepaid cards business, and with the strength of our offering and the expertise we have in place, I am confident we will be successful."