U.S. Bank ReliaCard wins OSCARD Award for card innovation

U.S. Bank, the nation’s top issuer of Visa® prepaid cards, was honored with a prestigious OSCARD award for its ReliaCard® Visa. The OSCARDS recognize international excellence in card innovation. The annual awards program is organized by Publi-News, a French publisher specializing in banking publications, and Altenor, an international consulting firm specializing in the payments industry.
The U.S. Bank ReliaCard Visa was selected as the winner in the Services category. Overall, more than 500 cards were in competition for the 2009 OSCARDS.
“We currently partner with almost 30 government agencies to issue nearly two million ReliaCards as a solution for their disbursement needs,” said Ralph Bianco, U.S. Bank senior vice president of Retail Payment Solutions. “This honor reinforces our focus on innovation in the prepaid sector while also recognizing our commitment to providing a more economical way for government agencies to disburse funds to recipients and for people to receive and use their government benefits.”
The U.S. Bank ReliaCard Visa is a reloadable card designed to replace costly paper checks for government agencies with recurring cash and check disbursement activities, such as child support or unemployment insurance. Cards are issued through a partnership with state agencies, and cardholders can use the cards everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted worldwide.
U.S. Bank Retail Payment Solutions (RPS) is one of the nation’s leading providers of payment processing, issuing and advisory services. RPS offers credit, debit, and prepaid payment solutions to consumers and small businesses through U.S. Bank and in partnership with financial institutions, businesses, governments and employers.
U.S. Bancorp, with $265 billion in assets as of September 30, 2009, is the parent company of U.S. Bank, the 6th largest commercial bank in the United States. The company operates 3,002 banking offices in 25 states and 5,170 ATMs and provides a comprehensive line of banking, brokerage, insurance, investment, mortgage, trust and payment services products to consumers, businesses and institutions.