Demystifying Prepaid Cards: An Opportunity for the Community Development Banking Sector

This report details how prepaid cards work and shows how they can fit into a CDFI bank's line of products for bringing customers into the mainstream financial system. The report provides a comprehensive literature review, a discussion of prepaid card programs implemented by two NCIF network banks that received loans from NCIF under a Ford Foundation grant, and then finally provides a "tool kit" for banks that want to provide prepaid and gift cards in their respective markets.