Innovative PIN-by-phone service introduced Metavante Technologies Ltd. and NewVoiceMedia announce agreement
Card Payments Processor Metavante Technologies Ltd. and Hosted Telephony provider NewVoiceMedia have announced an agreement to provide a new service that will allow callers to retrieve essential card account information including their PIN securely over the phone. This service – a white label IVR (Interactive Voice Response) - developed by NewVoiceMedia and resold by Metavante, provides a more secure solution with significant cost savings to the card issuers. It also enables the cardholder to retrieve their PIN information in minutes from any location around the world.
The outsourced service is believed to be the first that allows third party card issuers to deliver sensitive information over the phone with no additional IT development. This newly developed solution requires a small amount of configuration by Metavante to meet the specific client’s requirements – and this work can usually be completed in a matter of days. Previously the development costs for any one issuer would have been prohibitive; this multi-tenant hosted solution shares the costs across all the clients so making the solution not only technically possible, but also very attractive financially. The first customer is expected to ‘go-live’ by the end of the month, and Metavante reports that 10 other clients are already in the pipeline.
Pre-paid cards are the new cash
All forecasts point to significant growth in the numbers of prepaid cards in Europe over the next five years. While some of these forecasts may be aggressive, it is clear that growth will be significant given the tremendous simplicity and usefulness of the prepaid card concept. Historically, cards have been a by-product of either a current account or the credit business. Prepaid is the ultimate card product, because it can stand alone, and be used by anyone.
In the past, card customers had to wait several days for a letter containing their secret PIN number to arrive before being able to utilise the card. This letter could only be sent to the recipient’s home address and could be intercepted, which is an ever present security threat. From the card issuer’s perspective, preparing and posting a letter is both time and cost consuming – even more so since they may need to be issued more than once if the client forgets the PIN. With the white Label IVR service Metavante now have a secure way of letting customers obtain their PIN number as well as their account balance and recent transactions over the phone. Initially, the development for the new service was aimed at prepaid cards; although the service will work equally well for any payment card.
The solution uses an automated IVR system from NewVoiceMedia. Callers are prompted to enter their card number and the access code previously issued during the application process. Once the caller is authenticated they receive the card PIN as well as other services such as balance and recent transaction history over the phone. The fact that no human is in the loop, and secure encryption using a pair of Hardware Security Modules is used at both ends of the computer links, means that the system meets the rigorous PIN security standards imposed by the Payment Card Industry.
According to NewVoiceMedia CEO, Jonathan Grant, “It’s my money and I want it now!” was the driving force that led us to develop a secure service that allows callers to retrieve their PIN number over the phone. Grant added, “The Metavante solution is just one of many applications we now provide for secure transactions over the telephone. Being a Hosted solution means that we can deploy this service to new Metavante clients in a matter of days”.
Kevin Kelson, SVP Payments Processing at Metavante added, “Working with NewVoiceMedia on the IVR service has given Metavante a real strategic edge in this highly competitive market. This allows us to offer our clients a solution that is not only easy to implement, but also more cost effective and secure than traditional PIN Mailers”.
