In Durbin’s wake, banks nationwide need to stay especially tuned to what products newer/newish players are rolling out to ensure their consumer relationships aren’t disintermediated by outsiders.

The latest contender comes from none other than personal financial expert Suze Orman, who introduced her new Approved Card yesterday, which plunges the celeb into the prepaid card market. Though she’s got the financial adviser cache, will that win over a notable amount of card business for her? Quite possibly.The blogosphere and media reports seem to agree that fees tied to the card are more than fair.

Regardless of how well the product does, the Approved Card provides another example of how the prepaid card movement in the U.S. has been growing for the last year or so. Accessibility seems to be improving for users, more robust features are debuting and fees tacked onto prepaid card accounts are becoming less insane. American Express, for another, introduced a prepaid card last year that many industry players were impressed with, and the NYPAY Group, New York’s professional organization for payment executive, is meeting tomorrow night to discuss innovations within this sector. In short, prepaid cards are getting some action from outsiders and insiders and banks better stay tuned to what’s happening.

We spoke with banking expert Brett King yesterday, who interestingly said that he believes banks will soon start to lose out on the consumer’s basic banking accounts as newer players enter the market.

“You will see more competition and risk,” King tells Bank Innovation. “You will see a lot more competition for the basic bank account. It will be difficult for banks to defend that space.”

And though banks may sigh, “Oh well, those accounts aren’t profitable” – that’s short term thinking, King says. Deposit accounts lead to deeper business opportunities, King tells Bank Innovation.

This belief is something that Aite Group Analyst Ron Shevlin clued Bank Innovation into almost a year ago. In the wake of Durbin amendment, he encouraged banks to give prepaid more of a go, especially as the category isn’t just for the unbanked.

“There’s a displaced notion that prepaid cards are for the unbanked,” Shevlin said last March. “There are a group of consumers, including Gen X and Gen Y, that are already making use of prepaid cards for budgeting purposes.”

If banks lose the basic banking account, they will lose a lot. As Suze seems to have figured out.