The dirty secret of the prepaid card business is that often itsimply is difficult to load new funds on a card, even a reloadableone, and the difficulties multiply when those funds are in the formof a check.

That is why Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv has announced what itcalls Prepaid Source Capture, which leverages the company's mobileremote deposit capture tools.

“Putting a check on a prepaid card had not been that easy todo,” said Gary Brand, director of Source Capture Solutions atFiserv.

He added that of course the headline news is the velocity ofgrowth in prepaid cards, so Fiserv spotted a need that it believesits existing mobile RDC fills. “Reloading with a check just is aneat way to go,” said Brand.

What the Fiserv offering does is bring the RDC tools that havebeen revolutionizing mobile banking squarely into the prepaiduniverse.

As envisioned by Fiserv, a prepaid card company will offer itscustomers a mobile app, built into which will be mobile RDC(powered by Mitek-created algorithms, in Fiserv's case). The cardowner then can make a deposit simply by snapping an image of thefront and back of a check.

A Fiserv wrinkle is that – at the option of the prepaid cardprocessor – funds can be made immediately available.

That is because Fiserv, in brewing this offering, partnered withFort Worth, Texas-based VALID Systems to build in what amounts toreal-time verification of an item for deposit. “They run 60,000rules against an item and return a decision very quickly,” saidBrand.

A card processor of course would also have the ability to putholds on deposited items, as it saw fit, said Brand.

Brand said Fiserv intended to target prepaid card companies asits primary market when the company rolls out the product late inthe second quarter or early in the third.

As for costs to the consumer for using the mobile RDC tools,Brand said that decision would be made by the card processor.

Fiserv would not be first to market with this capability forprepaid cards. At least some prepaid cards already feature mobileRDC, a notable for-instance being American Express' Bluebird.