Kenneth Goins is the CEO and Board Member at Prepaid Solutions, Inc. Mr. Goins spent a few minutes speaking with GetDebit.com about the recent formation of Prepaid Solutions, Inc.

Prepaid Solutions, Inc. was formed in late 2009 as a result of an asset purchase. Navigation Capital Partners, an Atlanta-based private equity firm, purchased the assets and liabilities of Prepaid Solutions USA, a former division of West Suburban Bancorp, a Chicago based regional bank.

According to Mr. Goins, Navigation Capital Partners identified Prepaid Solutions USA as a desirable acquisition after analyzing a number of other opportunities in the prepaid space. “We believe that prepaid represents the fastest growing segment of consumer finance in the United States” stated Goins, and that “we picked up Prepaid Solutions USA at a good time, as it already had passed some of the barriers to entry in this market, with great business partners in place, regulatory issues solved, and a nice technology platform to grow off.” Navigation Capital Partners saw that Prepaid Solutions had a “very solid business model” that “can scale quite nicely with the management team, relationships, capital and strategy provided by Navigation Capital.”

While part of West Suburban Bancorp, Prepaid Solutions developed a broad product line, with a line of general purpose reloadable cards, a network with 2,000 retail distribution points, consumer and corporate gift cards and incentive programs, and a solid set of payroll debit programs.

Goins expects to continue to grow each of those lines, and has a number of niche market products in the works or on the market. One niche product is in the maritime area, where Prepaid Solutions is providing payroll cards to the U.S. cruise line industry. The maritime payroll cards allow employees of cruise lines to receive their pay on payroll cards which are designed to allow employees to easily move funds from one currency to another (a must have for workers who routinely visit multiple countries in a single cruise).

Goins is excited about the opportunities in front of Prepaid Solutions, Inc., and sees a market with “lots of competition, but no real dominant players.”

Prepaid Solutions, Inc. currently issues cards in partnership with West Suburban Bank, but is transitioning some of the card issuing to a new partnership with Center State Bank of Florida.

The acquisition resulted in a number of management changes at the newly formed company. While Dan Grotto, who previously lead Prepaid Solutions USA, remains as the President, Goins is joined by a number of other Navigation Capital executives, including Eric Ohlhausen as CFO. The founder of Navigation Capital Partners, Larry Mock, will join the company’s board of directors along with Navigation Capital partner David Panton, vice president Zuri Briscoe and O.G. Greene.

Navigation Capital Partners is an Atlanta-based private equity firm that makes growth and buyout investments in middle market niche manufacturing, distribution and business services companies with $20 to $200 million in revenue.