West Coast Bank, Bellevue, Wash., has become one of the first banks in the country to offer customers the Coinstar line of gift card, prepaid wireless, cash card and phone card products.

The bank says that the stored valued card offerings are consistent with the company's payment system strategy of providing innovative financial solutions to customers visiting branches.

Included in the product line are gift cards from food, entertainment and retail businesses such as Chili's, Borders, Starbucks, Circuit City, AMC Theatres, KB Toys, and Timberland. The bank Chanel Watches is also offering Green Dot debit cards, a prepaid cash card product.

The bank's strategy is based on the belief that gift cards create a new distribution service for existing customers, while products such as cards attract new segments for banks, including the young, underbanked or unbanked.

Coinstar says its Gift Card Mall and prepaid product portfolio were designed to create an opportunity for financial institutions--a turnkey solution to improve customer services and drive incremental traffic, sales and profit.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Coinstar offers a category management program that includes inventory control, management of card sourcing, display design and merchandising and technology integration for point-of-sale. The company's gift card portfolio includes regional and national retail branded gift cards as well as gift cards from online retailers. The company also offers self-service prepaid and coin-counting kiosks, POSA and host-to-host point-of-sale solutions tailored to fit each retail situation.

Bookmark: