UK-based Airdrie Savings Bank has signed a five-year hosted debit card processing contract with US-based Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) for its Cortex card management solution. This new deployment is scheduled to go live in the third quarter of 2010.
According to FIS, Cortex is a modular software application which processes card-based transactions on every level of an electronic funds transfer. The solution allows organizations to issue debit, credit and prepaid cards from a single platform.
Stuart Waterson, senior manager for operations at Airdrie Savings Bank, said: “FIS Cortex has a major advantage over some other products in that existing card data can be easily migrated from the previous system. This means there is no need to inconvenience customers by re-issuing their debit cards or Personal Identification Numbers (PINs).
“FIS also takes on the considerable burden of PCI compliance. We really liked the fact that FIS Cortex is highly configurable and can integrate seamlessly with our systems and daily processes, as well as avoiding large scale in-house development.”
John Yeomans, general manager for cards at FIS, said: “Maintaining compliant solutions is a huge hurdle for many institutions and often requires a large portion of IT budgets. FIS’ outsourced debit processing service is attracting a great deal of interest as banks look to find functionally rich, reliable and cost-effective alternatives to in-house solutions.”