The card, which was issued together with the Higher School of Public Administration in Bialystok, will enable students to access their scholarship funds through Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and POS terminals connected to the Visa network.

Katarzyna Przybyla, Director of Card Products in the Transaction Banking division of Citibank Handlowy, said "The Debit Scholarship card can be used to pay for selected goods or services in over 80,000 service and sales outlets accepting Visa Electron cards in Poland. It is the latest in a range of prepaid Visa Electron cards we offer our corporate clients who can issue different types of cards with customized graphics, available amount of funds, card distribution and activation methods."

Citibank Handlowy and CTL's relationship dates back to 1997 when the bank first licensed and installed START, CTL's Visa sponsored card and merchant management solution for start-up institutions. It has since migrated to CTL's PRIME platform on which, in 2003, it successfully issued real-time debit card products to its corporate clients in Poland.

Edith Kessler-Charalambous, General Manager Business Expansion at CTL, said, "Prepaid has been identified as the new wave of technology offering multiple opportunities and huge potential to the card payments industry.
Citibank Handlowy has demonstrated that it is at the forefront of this market and CTL has, once again, demonstrated its technological leadership by enabling its clients to seize on new market opportunities, quickly and efficiently."

CTL's PRIME card management solution provides the bank with a flexible platform to issue and process prepaid cards for a multitude of purposes, including gift cards, travel cards, teen cards, payroll and money transfer cards. With built-in templating features to allow for the definition of new prepaid card types, PRIME also offers a cost effective solution for clients wishing to initiate new prepaid programmes with other industry sectors.