1. A system for stored value card transactions, said system comprising a gateway into a national, ISO 8583 electronic funds transfer service and an account holder database, said system further configured to: receive a message originally generated by the point of sale system of a retail merchant at said gateway; parse the message into a series of data elements representing at least a transaction amount, a transaction type, a merchant ID, a bank identification number, an institution ID, a branch ID, and an account identifier; route the message through a switch controller to said account holder database, the message based on the institution ID and the branch ID; access an account within the database utilizing the account identifier; determine if an account holder's monetary balance in the account is greater than or equal to the transaction amount; format transaction data, the transaction data including at least a transaction amount, a bank ID number, an institution ID, a branch ID, and an account identifier into a message; and transmit the message, including one of an authorization approval or a denial, based upon the determination.