NCB & TSYS
National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCB), Jamaica’s largest financial services provider has upgraded to the latest version of TSYS’ card issuing and merchant management solution ” PRIME 4.
Mpayments Promo Consumer Protection Concerns
Mpayments brought to Canada potential risks to Canadian consumers, according to “Mobile Payments and Consumer Protection in Canada,” Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC). It the extent to which financial consumers in Canada are protected when making m-payments and found that consumer protections vary greatly. Users of m-payments in Canada are not all protected equally, as consumer protection obligations vary by service provider. Mobile devices represent an opportunity to improve disclosure by informing consumers and seeking consent in real time. M-payment service providers may sell user data to third-party marketers, who then target consumers with advertising based on demographic, behavioural and geographic information. This practice, known as profiling, may provide benefits to consumers, but it may also pose new risks, particularly when products are marketed to vulnerable consumers.
CIMB Bank Intros mMoney Transfer
CIMB Bank announced the launch of the Kwik Account, the first account in Malaysia that can be opened online without visiting a bank branch, and is instantly activated upon successful application. It also introduced Kwik Money Transfer, a new feature on its market leading internet banking platform, CIMB Clicks, that gives all CIMB Bank savings and current account holders the capability to send money to anyone’s Malaysian mobile numbers or email addresses instead of account numbers. The Kwik Account is accessible via CIMB Clicks and CIMB Clicks Mobile App on Apple and Android mobile devices. Customers can also easily transfer money into this account online or at any CIMB Bank cash deposit machines.
TSYS and FICO Integrate Fraud Management
TSYS and FICO software integrated FICO’s latest version of its fraud management solution, “FICO Falcon Fraud Manager 6” with TSYS’ “PRIME” card and merchant management solution. This extension to TSYS’ global strategic alliance with FICO will enable TSYS to offer the Falcon Fraud Manager solution as a hosted service to its licensing clients around the globe. TSYS and FICO’s integrated solution is being successfully utilised by EnterCard, a Nordic-based TSYS PRIME client since 1999. The integrated Falcon solution manages fraud by examining the behavioural aspects of cardholder activity, using advanced analytic models to provide real-time decisions. Combining best-in-class neural network models with merchant profiles, the solution even goes one step further detecting fraud by using adaptive models that change as global fraud patterns migrate.
Experian upgrades pre-screening credit risk
Experian global information services launched a new version of its credit marketing pre-screening tool. Allowing financial services organizations to more easily identify consumers under financial stress and market only to those most likely to be accepted for their products and services, Delphi for Marketing draws on Experian’s extensive data assets and analytical expertise to assess the credit risk status of UK consumers and includes additional data indicating credit card behavioral data, used in line with credit data regulations.
Experian New Credit Risk Tool Promotes Sound Lending
Experian global information services launched a new version of its credit marketing pre-screening tool allowing financial services organisations to more easily identify consumers under financial stress and market only to those most likely to be accepted for their products and services. These data include additional data indicating early signs of arrears as well as credit card behavioural data. Delphi for Marketing accesses a huge volume of addressable data and also allows the appending of behavioural insight from Experian’s consumer financial classification tool, Financial Strategy Segments, to ultimately promote responsible lending by marketing based on informed decisions.
Debit Usage to Grow 50-70%
The debit card market is expected to see a 50% to 70% growth in terms of usage this year as a result of stricter credit card measures aimed at reducing household debts.Introduced in 2005, debit card usage in 2010 has grown by 68% year-on-year to approximately RM4.7bil. At the same time, there was limited awareness among the consumers and merchants about the benefits of debit cards. The minimum annual income requirement for credit card eligibility has been raised to RM24,000 from RM18,000 previously. For cardholders earning RM36,000 per annum and less, they can only hold credit cards from a maximum of two issuers and the maximum credit limit for those earning less than this amount had also been capped to double the monthly income of the card holder from each issuing bank. The average value of annual transaction per card for credit cards in 2010 stood at RM9,338 while that for debit cards was merely RM141. The drop in number of credit and charge cards in 2010 was due to the imposition of the RM50 service tax.
MoneyGram International Implements Anti-Fraud
MoneyGram has implemented a solution called “Global Compliance” that identifies suspicious or high-risk transactions based on established criteria. Already having helped prevent more than 1,000 customers from losing funds to fraud during its first 50 days, “Global Compliance” reduced internet purchase fraud by 30% during this same period. The system scans each transaction looking for signs of fraud, and suspicious transactions are put on hold until the company can confirm if a transaction is legitimate or fraudulent. Rules were developed specifically by MoneyGram, offering the company the flexibility to modify the rules as needed in order to respond more quickly to new and different kinds of fraud. Today, the tool is monitoring all send transactions from Canada and the United States to anywhere in the world.
ATOS RESEARCH
Atos Worldline research shows the Customer Relationship Management rules
applied by banks “before the financial crisis” are no longer valid and
the “post-financial crisis” global CRM approach is still rarely
explored. Institutions are subsequently refocusing their CRM strategies
with institutions designing new approaches to regain and reassure
customers and movement towards “refocusing on the customer.” The”win
back trust” strategy shows an optimum balance between financial
investments and the satisfying customers’ needs will generate the
maximum profit on a “customer-centric” approach to improving customer
understanding by getting hold of behavioral/relational characteristics
and identifying and repositioning favorite customer channels according
to their profitability. Atos research concludes if Financial
Institutions want to bring back trust and profit together, they must
first consider repositioning and fine-tune sales channels to increase
their sales efficiency.
CARDHOLDERS EXPOSED
Major British credit card issuers are gearing up to share behavioral data on their customers as a way to identify accounts that are in trouble. Barclaycard, Capital One, GE Money, HBOS and MBNA will be sharing the data amongst each other in response to the revised “Banking Code” which calls for more responsible lending. Traditionally, shared data for credit cards has included the customer’s balance, credit limit and whether payments are up to date. The new data will now also include the amount of their last payment, and whether this was equivalent to the minimum payment; changes to credit limits; the extent to which they withdraw cash on their account and if the customer is signed up to any promotional deals. This last category is particularly important because it makes it possible for a lender to distinguish between someone only ever paying the minimum repayment because they may be in financial difficulty, from someone who has the means to repay, but chooses not to because of a deal they have obtained. APACS says the
data will be shared through the credit reference agencies.
EXPERIAN & SERASA
Experian has announce its 65% acquisition in Serasa Brazilian credit
bureau from a consortium of banks for R$2.32 billion. The Experian
share is to increase to 70% over the next 6 months and is slated for
completion in June of 2008. With this development, Experian will control
60% of total credit bureau reporting around the world and allow the
company to capitalize on Brazil’s rapid growth. Compounding these
highlights, Serasa brings with it the largest consumer and commercial
credit bureau in the country with a 60% market share allowing Experian
to build on the platform to deliver products from its portfolio.
Furthermore,
Serasa has demonstrated its growth at over 20% per annum for each of the
past two years with EBIT margins of over 20%. Experian does not expect to
see any financial gains with the acquisition for the first year but does
expect
a cash benefit from tax relief on the goodwill generated by this
acquisition
of R$70m-R$100m per annum for the next seven years. Finally, to remain
The President of Serasa will be Elcio Anibal de Lucca after the acquisition
is complete.
ETHICAL CARDS
The ten most ethical credit cards, based on donations
made and to charities involved, have been recognized by an online price
comparison service and marketer. Eight per cent of the 185 million
credit cards circulating in the UK today include credit cards that
apportion a percentage of their profits to a charity with over 300
affinity card programs in-place. BeatThatQuote.com says that last year
GBP 67.8 million was donated on plastic in the summer, while the ethical
goods industry was reportedly worth 29.3 billion GBP in 2005. Experts
say that the young and highly-educated are most likely to use these
affinity cards, investigate greener suppliers and lead a more ethical
lifestyle. Credit cards are becoming a tool to reconcile spending by
making a difference. The ten cards ranked as “Most Ethical” include:
UNICEF; Oxfam Advantage Platinum; American Express RED; British Heart
Foundation; WWF; RSPCA; Childline; The National Trust; Nationwide Comic
Relief; and Breakthrough Breast Cancer.