What is a community cord blood bank?

Community Banking is a new sharing economy model of cord blood banking that was pioneered by LifeCell in India. Parents who choose to store their child's cord blood in a community bank will have access, in the event of medical need, to all of the other cord blood units in the community bank.  A community bank is like a public cord blood bank in that the members are supporting each other, but it is also like a private bank because the members pay for this service and outsiders cannot participate. 

Community banking can fill an unmet health need in a country like India, where there is no national network of public banks and the population has unique genetics that are not covered by banks elsewhere in the world. Scientists have calculated that a community bank holding 25,000 cord blood units would be able to match 96.4% of Indians close enough for a transplant.

Community banking is different from "hybrid" banking where both public and family banks share a laboratory, because in hybrid banks the pubic and family sides operate separately. In a community bank the public and family functions are blended.