Elan Debuts Mobile Management App for Debit, Prepaid
Issuers are beginning to put the fight against fraud into cardholders’ hands with mobile app controls, such as on/off switches and geolocation. Elan Financial Services is the latest to help issuers give debit and prepaid cardholders the ability to control their cards from their smartphones. The U.S. Bank-owned processor’s new Elan Mobile Services tool offers cardholders mobile-based security features, including the ability to turn off their card if it’s lost or stolen and set location controls to determine where the card can be used—and receive an alert if it’s used somewhere else. Users also can restrict online purchases and set spending parameters for another user of the card, such as a cardholder’s child.
Elan Mobile Services also include account management and money transfer features. The service is compatible with all debit and prepaid cards processed through Elan’s network. Card issuers will have the ability to choose which features to offer their customers, as well as whether to deliver the services via Elan’s My Mobile Money app, a white-label app or integrate the features into the issuer’s existing app using an API. Additional features, including remote deposit capture and fraud alerts, will roll out later this year, according to Elan.
With payment card fraud on the rise and consumers tethered to their smartphones, mobile card management is becoming a cornerstone value proposition for card issuers to attract and keep customers. Fiserv Inc. found that users of its Pay Award-winning CardValet card management app performed 10 to 30 percent more transactions per month than non-users, according to the company. Meanwhile, 71 percent of respondents who use a card management app have taken action as a result of an alert, according to a Bank of America study.
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