GPR Cards are Great for Banks. What’s next?

Mark Twain would be surprised to learn that his popular quote about bankers is no longer holding true. He once said, A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain. These days, banks are offering new services to consumers they would have otherwise turned away. Many unbanked and underbanked consumers have access to banking services and the conveniences of credit cards thanks to these umbrellas.

General purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid cards are a major part of these services, which are benefiting both banks and consumers. In fact, The Mercator Advisory Group recently noted, These changes offer opportunities for increased efficiencies for financial institutions and greater control and overall satisfaction for customers.

While banks focus on GPR cards and other services for consumers, they may be missing additional opportunities to offer prepaid solutions to their small business clients as well. Small businesses can use B2B prepaid cards for a variety of purposes including payroll, incentives, business gifts and expense management. By partnering with a prepaid provider, banks can support these efforts and offer additional services to existing clients.

The math behind B2B prepaid card opportunities speaks for itself. For example, the average small business customer purchases $500 in prepaid cards every year. For a bank with 10,000 small business customers, that’s $5 million in funds. If that bank captured just 5% of that, the bank would gain an additional $250,000 in gross revenue.

GPR cards for consumers and B2B prepaid cards for small businesses: that combination should keep a bank in the umbrella-selling business, rain or shine.