Luca Bizzotto

Alto Global Processing: Visa announces improved payment card fraud detection

Visa has announced a series of enhancements to Visa’s Advanced Authorization (VAA) technology that significantly improve the ability of its global processing network to detect potential electronic payments fraud.

Financial institutions can use the information to more reliably know which transactions to decline in real time, potentially reducing fraud by billions per year, while more confidently approving legitimate transactions to remove friction from payments for merchants and consumers alike.visa alto global processing giving back

“Cardholders, merchants and issuers all want to have confidence in the convenience and the security of every Visa transaction,” said Mark Nelsen, Head of Risk and Authentication Products, Visa Inc. “The great improvements we’ve made in Advanced Authorization this year were designed to do just that: fight fraud and its costs to financial institutions and merchants, while also ensuring legitimate transactions are handled with the speed and convenience that consumers and merchants want.”

Visa has increased the breadth of each account profile in the Advanced Authorization model by adding more transactional history data, along with additional neural networks to analyze that data. The account profile is a major component of the risk score assigned to a given transaction and provided to the issuer for them to make an authorization decision. The result is more robust performance and improvement of as much as 130% in detecting fraud in debit transactions and 175% for credit transactions.

The enhanced model includes additional risk indicators specific to Automated Fuel Dispensers (AFD) transactions. Visa’s network now can pinpoint suspicious activity at a gas station and apply that to all transactions processed through that station. The model also uses account velocity at AFDs compared to that account’s normal behaviour in the score determination. This can potentially increase the effectiveness of fraud detection in this segment by as much as 266% for debit transactions and 163% in credit.

The VAA improvements offer the potential to substantially reduce fraud in both transactions where the physical Visa card is present, such as a retail store, as well as in “card not present” environments such as online shopping. The improvements are effective for both consumer and commercial accounts and transactions.

Source: http://www.paymenteye.com/2013/10/03/visa_announces_improved_payment_card_fraud_detection/#.UlLhFWRAREB

Please visit http://www.paymenteye.com for more news!

 For more information on this please feel free to contact Luca Bizzotto, CEO of Alto Global Processing Please visit Alto Global Processing
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Alto Global Processing Position on The Big Business Behind Prepaid Debit Cards, Commented by Chairman Luca Bizzotto

Alto Global Processing Stance on The Big Business Behind Prepaid Debit Cards, Comments by Chairman Luca Bizzotto
By Morgan Korn | Daily Ticker – Fri, Jan 13, 2012 8:31 AM EST
Edited by Alto Global Processing

CEO and Chairman of Alto Global Processing, Luca Bizzotto, has put Prepaid and Payout debit cards at the forefront of the Alto Global Processing agenda as prepaid debit cards are the fastest growing form of electronic payment in the nation.

“We have been working on a debit card solution for well over one year now.  It is certainly not the easiest business to get into, but the trends are leaning toward extreme growth in the coming years, so we feel it is certainly worth the time and effort.” explained Luca Bizzotto

Celebrities such as Def Jam Co-Founder Russell Simmons, rapper Lil Wayne and now financial guru and CNBC host Suze Orman are hawking their cards to the masses, wanting a piece of the booming prepaid debit card market. Federal Reserve data shows prepaid card transactions grew more than 20 percent between 2006 and 2009.

These cards are geared toward individuals with little or no credit history or those who have difficulty obtaining traditional credit cards. A 2009 FDIC survey found that 9 million American households do not have a checking or savings account. According to the Mercator Advisory Group, consumers added approximately $71 billion onto prepaid cards last year, a dramatic increase from the $2.7 billion in 2005. The consulting group estimates that the prepaid debit card market will expand to $150 billion in 2012.

Prepaid cards offer perks to a certain segment of the population that it would not normally enjoy, such as the convenience of using plastic to purchase goods online and withdrawing money from an ATM. They do not contribute to one’s credit score and often come attached with exorbitant fees.

“Many companies out there are ‘nickel and diming’ their card holders with fees for every possible thing.  This is not our intention, and also part of the reason why it is taking us so long to roll out our product.  There is plenty of money to be made on transaction fees and interchange rates while still keeping the cardholders happy.  This is our goal.  We are looking for long term cardholders that are happy with our product.” says Luca Bizzotto.

FICO CEO Mark Greene tells Henry Blodget that prepaid cards are ” basically a substitute for a checking account” and a “a great tool for people who are new to personal finance” like college students. There are benefits to choosing such a card, Greene says, but that depends on how often the card is utilized.

“If you use them sparingly they can be a good deal,” he adds. “They do teach you how to manage your personal finances. They’re sort of a training wheel before you’re ready for a regular credit card.”

The fees connected to these cards vary from card purveyor but it’s not uncommon for users to rack up $50 to $100 in monthly charges, says Greene.

Orman’s Approved Card offers benefits that its competitors do not, such as identity protection and a credit monitoring service. In an interview with the New York Times, Orman responded to criticism about the industry and her decision to enter the fast-growing market:

“I couldn’t be more proud of this card if I tried,” she said in the article. “There is something radically wrong here. We are rewarding people for having credit and punishing people who pay in cash. I want to change that paradigm.”

Orman charges a one-time $3 flat fee for her card plus a monthly $3 charge. Simmons offers two prepaid credit plans, with the monthly option costing $9.95 per month (plus a one-time fee, convenience fee, ATM fee, currency conversion fee, etc). Wal-Mart, in partnership with Green Dot, commands similar fees for its card. Bowing to pressure by consumer advocacy groups, the Kardashian sisters pulled the plug on their prepaid debit card late last year.

Alto Global Processing has yet to roll out their fees, however they plan to structure fair fees to optimize the longevity of their card holders.

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/big-business-behind-prepaid-debit-cards-133141404.html

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Jump Start Your Business with Alto Global Processing
Protect Your Business – By using Alto’s proprietary and fully customizable Anti-Fraud software you can nearly eliminate the risk of online fraud.
Customizable Gateway Features and Reports – Customize Alto’s gateway to meet all of your processing needs.
Reduce Bank Fees – Cut down on chargebacks and merchant fees by stopping unwanted transactions before they hit the banking network.
Easy Integration – Flexible API which allows quick integrations for our clients.
24/7 Customer Service – As an additional option to complement our payment gateway, Alto offers our Award Winning Customer Support Center to handle all of your customer’s needs.

 

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Alto Global Processing Signs Credorax to Merchant Bank Portfolio

Per press release issued on:
December 20, 2011
PRNewswire

An Alto Global Processing referring merchant banking institution.
BOSTON, Dec. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Credorax, a leading developer of next generation technology for the processing of online payment transactions, and a Financial Institution licensed under the EU Payment Services Directive (PSD), announced today that it has selected AMD (NYSE: AMD) Opteron™ processors for its proprietary NextGen ePower™ Payment Processing and Acquiring Platform.

Through this collaboration, the AMD Opteron technology, which features up to 16 processor cores per CPU to enhance performance when combined with Credorax’s technology, will help establish a new industry standard in online payment processing and value-added end-to-end services to merchants and Internet Payment Service Providers (IPSPs) worldwide.

Credorax provides advanced online payments, business intelligence and value-added business optimization tools to help grow online merchant businesses. With its incredible performance for parallel applications, AMD Opteron processors will help increase operational services backed by ePower, Credorax’s proprietary cloud-architecture payment processing system with advanced production techniques for fraud management, analysis and velocity data checks.
“AMD technology enhances ePower with the high performance, scalability and reliability we need to continue to provide our customers and partners with NextGen technology and first-class services,” said Michael J. Ellis, chief information officer of Credorax. “Together, we’re building a world-class system that supports Credorax’s high business growth and global coverage.”

“The highly parallel processing capabilities of the new AMD Opteron processors are uniquely suited for the rigorous high-volume online payment processing market, and will help Credorax’s NextGen ePower solution process as many payment transactions that the network can support,” said Paul Struhsaker, corporate vice president and general manager, Commercial Business, AMD. “Our robust family of server processors is powering ecommerce with innovative companies like Credorax, bringing next-generation technology and value-added services to the world of online payment processing.”

Credorax is unique in that it owns both the hardware and software of the ePower platform, allowing it to optimize each system, respectively. Additionally, the platform’s web-based nature favors hardware environments with multiple memory channels and high core-counts, making it a natural fit for AMD-based systems. Similarly, the unique architecture of the AMD Opteron processor also makes it ideal for the demands of high-transaction rate applications and platforms in the online processing market.

Featuring Direct Connect Architecture, an integrated memory controller and HyperTransport™ technology for additional memory bandwidth, speed gains, low latency and superior scalability, AMD Opteron processors with Credorax’s next-generation technology deliver the right mix of performance, reliability and scalability for large-scale ecommerce payment processing.

About Credorax
Credorax provides online payment processing & acquiring bank services under one roof, to a diverse range of online merchants and IPSPs, worldwide. Credorax provides smart acquiring solutions backed by next generation technology. Credorax customers enjoy seamless integration payment services, excellent rates, high transaction approval rates and a wide range of value-added customer services.

Credorax is a licensed financial institution and a Visa and MasterCard principal member.

Credorax and Alto Global Processing
“We are delighted to offer Credorax as a merchant processing option to our merchants” says Alto Global Processing’s, Luca BIzzotto.  “The bank is a great addition to our merchant banking portfolio and we are thrilled to have a growing institution such as Credorax to further broaden our horizon’s at Alto Global Processing”.

Luca Bizzotto, serves as chairman of Alto Global Processing

SOURCE Credorax

 

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eBay Acquires BillSAFE to Enhance PayPal in Germany
 eBay has announced that it has acquired BillSAFE, a payment-upon-invoice payment provider in Germany.

“By combining BillSAFE with PayPal, which serves more than 15 million accounts in Germany, PayPal believes the addition of BILLSAFE will provide a comprehensive payment service for merchants and consumers. BillSAFE works with merchants of all sizes in Germany, giving them a simple and secure way to let shoppers purchase using an invoice. Customers simply select the item they want to buy, and then they receive an invoice for payment after the item is received.”

The BillSAFE website is at www.billsafe.de.

Source: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111222005130/en/eBay-Acquires-BillSAFE

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