In Brief: With New Bank, IBAA Offers More Card Help

The credit card bank chartered by the Independent Bankers Association of America opened for business Monday.

TCM Bank was created to underwrite and administer credit cards for banks too small to fund their own programs. TCM will make credit decisions and handle back-office processing, but the community bank's name will appear on the cards.

IBAA Bancard Inc., another subsidiary of the trade group, handles the processing for banks issuing credit cards, but the banks must fund their card portfolios and decide who deserves credit.

"For 12 years IBAA Bancard has provided operational and marketing support to more than 2,000 community banks that issue their own credit cards," said Richard Mount, chairman of IBAA Bancard. "This new program gives thousands of other community banks a way to offer a card without the administrative burden and marketing risk."

TCM Bank plans to target the 4,000 IBAA member banks that have under $50 million of assets.

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