MCLEAN, Va. -- Noted credit card issuer Capital One is working on a new debit card product that will allow cardholders to withdraw funds from their credit union share draft accounts and heralds the beginning of what may be another revolution in the retail card market.

The new card will be called a "decoupled" debit card, a term that arose from the fact that the debit card will be issued by an institution that does not hold the card holder's savings or checking account and thus "decouples" the card from the depository institution.

This change will be revolutionary because it will break the debit card-deposit account link that has heretofore served to make debit cards among the most stable and important credit union card products. After all, as many analysts have noted in the past, many Americans have at least two and sometimes up to as many as six or seven credit cards but usually only one debit card, or two if they happen to have depository accounts with two institutions.