To retain and attract new cardholders, increase activation rates, as well as card programme profitability, deposit money banks in the country have been advised to take advantage of financial instant issuance solution. This was the view of experts at the Datacard-ChamsAccess Financial Instant Issuance Seminar for deposit money banks, switch operators and certified card issuers in the country.
Speaking at the seminar, Chidi Umeano, director, shared services office, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), represented by Babatunde Ajiboye, deputy manager, shared services office, described financial instant issuance as the next frontier for payment cards in the banking industry.
He stated that banks in developing and advanced financial markets are presently deploying the instant issuance solution to position their brands for future advancements in the fast paced payment cards ecosystem. In deploying instant issuance solution in the Nigerian market, Umeano urged banks to consider the shared service centre approach which entails integrating the solution with an existing central infrastructure in the market.
Umeano further added that this will ensure the existence of a fully interoperable and streamlined process at the backend and points of issuance thereby strengthening the existing relationships between issuers, payments schemes and other value chain players.
On her part, Funke Alomoluwa, managing director, ChamsAccess Limited, said “The contemporary consumer wants banks to offer great, convenient and secure products and services that align with their lifestyle. Instant Issuance of payment cards provide deposit money banks with a real opportunity to respond to this ubiquitous yearning.”
The solution makes it possible for new and existing customers of banks to walk into their branch to pick up a fully-functioning debit/credit card with exceptional security features in a few minutes. This will indeed delight the contemporary consumer.
“For the banks, Instant Issuance has huge benefits too. These include improved customer experience, reduced costs, and increased profitability. Available statistics from prior deployments by Datacard Group in other markets indicate that banks using Instant Issuance solution record higher debit/credit cards activation rates than banks that do not. Instant Issuance creates opportunities for banks to increase payment cards activation rates, customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as profitability.”
Paul Ballington, financial instant issuance sales manager, EMEA, Datacard Group and lead facilitator at the seminar described CardWizard Financial Instant Issuance Solution by Datacard as the world’s best selling software in its segment with full PCI PA-DSS compliance, about 7500 installations worldwide, and integration with over 30 card management systems and network activation switches.
He disclosed that Barclays Bank, the largest EMV instant issuance implementation in Europe used the solution to improve customer satisfaction and retention, maximise cross selling opportunities, and to gain competitive advantage in a highly competitive financial market.
By: Ben Uzor Jr
