Key Dates

August 30 - IMPORTANT
TC-40s for Visa's optional alternative dispute process for CardSystems fraud due to OneBridge.


September 2
Order forms for Visa $1.5 Million Holiday Giveaway promotion due to OneBridge.


September 18 - 21
OneBridge attends ShareOne conference as speaker and exhibitor.


September 23
Delivery of materials for Visa Instant Rewards begins.


September 23
Distribution of Visa's October Mandates notes.


September 30
End of Join the Journey Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games promotion.

 

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Quick Fact
If you are required to provide a credit card number to receive a free offer, make 100% sure you understand the terms of the offer. Millions of consumers have signed up for free credit reports and many did not realize they were going to be charged $12.95 per month or more for a monitoring service after the first "free" month. Furthermore, most consumers do not realize that they are entitled to a free report from all three major credit bureaus once a year. Consumers can get their free reports by phone, mail or at one authorized website, www.annualcreditreport.com.

- cardweb.com 



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One Year as OneBridge

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of our name change to OneBridge! In light of this special time, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the last 12 months and recognize some of the accomplishments of OneBridge and our clients'.

Here are a few of the great achievements clients shared with us for the Room to Grow - OneBridge Money Tree contest:

Our overall success is that our income through July 2005 is almost more than we made for all of 2004. Our loan delinquency is very low and we currently have a loan to share ratio of 79%.

- Sharon Tobias, Vice President Controller, Bar-Cons
On their accomplishments in general.

Over the past year we have focused 100% on cardholder satisfaction by taking a proactive approach. We are diligent about reviewing reports daily and contacting members when we see that they may need our help. By contacting them before they call us, they know we care. Our success is measured by our increase in overall card usage. Transaction volume has increased 13%, and revolving balances have increased 14% over the past year. With the best resources and great support from OneBridge, we are very confident about the quality of our card program!

- Sabrina Rossi, Operations Manager, Western Connecticut
About the success of their card program.

Additionally, OneBridge's leadership team identified several achievements for OneBridge this year, including:

  1. Maintaining an average uptime to Visa of 99.99...%
  2. Introducing Point2Point Rewards.
  3. Engaging Visa as a valued partner.
  4. Sharing specs with additional core processors. 
  5. Performing ROI modeling and consulting.

By the way, contrary to a rumor we've heard out there, in year two OneBridge will not be changing our name to "TwoBridges!"

Before we announce the winner of Room to Grow, we'd like to thank everyone that participated. We loved seeing your pictures and hearing about your accomplishments.

And now, for the moment you've all been waiting for. The largest money tree belongs too...

Trivantage Community Credit Union in Huntington, WV.

"Bubby" is a staggering 35" wide by 26.5" tall. Above, teller Vanessa Ware kneels next to Bubby. According to our calculations (based on Visa's current blended interchange rate) he is awarded $108.24.

Bar-Cons Federal Credit Union's tree has the most room to grow for next year. At 15" by 15", their "OneBridge Money Tree" is awarded $52.80.

 

Card Smarts
This section of Touchpoints includes tips and tidbits to help you get the most out of your card programs.

Three best practices for managing your card programs:

  1. Make one person accountable for your card programs. It is key to have one person who wakes up each morning thinking about your card programs.
  2. Know your cardholders. Know what they want from their cards. Know how they are using their cards.
  3. Make your employees "program ambassadors". Encourage your employees to use your card products so they can better explain the value to your cardholders.

VIFD  Score Soon to Be VAA Risk Score

Visa has introduced Visa's Advanced Authorization (VAA) as their new fraud identification model. Part of the model includes the VAA risk score. This risk score is scheduled to replace the existing Visa's Issuer Fraud Detection (VIFD) score around mid-year 2006.

Like VIFD, the VAA risk score gives each transaction a score that indicates the probability that it is fraudulent. The VAA risk score is between 0 and 99. The unique feature of this model is that it not only looks at transactions made by a single cardholder (account-level fraud), but also compares transactions across all cardholders (event-level fraud). This helps improve its ability to identify possible larger-scale fraud schemes.

OneBridge has been capturing and analyzing the VAA Risk score for the last year on all authorizations. We are currently working with Visa to determine a recommended initial score to use as a threshold. We will then be able to work with your institution to identify your specific threshold. Your account manager will be contacting you within the next 90 to 120 days with more information about implementation and education related to VAA!

Where Do We Grow From Here?
OneBridge Shares Card Knowledge with CU Board

JM Associates Federal Credit Union in Jacksonville, FL invited OneBridge to lead a half-day meeting about cards at their board planning session on July 30, 2005. President Kim Graham Lee presented and facilitated the overall discussion.

Kim shared a complete overview of the JM Associates card programs. First they looked at the JM Associates history. Then they examined where they are today and how they compare to the current card industry as a whole. Finally they explored what opportunities JM Associates has for cards in the future.

"From what I see in the credit union movement, there are a lot of credit unions that don't understand the contribution a properly positioned card program can make to their bottom line," said Jim Ryan, president and CEO of JM Associates Federal Credit Union. "This session put our card program in the spotlight and gave our board members a great benchmark to use as they develop our strategies for the future. I would recommend this program to any financial institution."

The JM Associates board members found the session valuable, as evidenced by 100% of them indicating they would recommend it to board members of other OneBridge clients.

Despite being held in sunny Cancun, Kim assured us that the board was highly engaged in the discussion. "The card session even went over almost an hour and a half!" she said.

OneBridge is continuing to follow up with JM Associates to help as they continue to develop their strategy for the future.

Dispute Agent Update: Live With OneBridge Client Service

Our new automated dispute management tool, Dispute Agent, is currently being used internally by client service to manage the disputes that OneBridge processes. We anticipate the first beta client to begin using the dispute resolution solution within their institution in September 2005.

This tool will help your institution manage chargeback and copy request processing and will provide electronic document exchange and will eliminate paper-based, manual tracking. Users will be able to create a dispute case within the system, submit the necessary documentation, and view and manage the entire life-cycle of that case from within Gateway Navigator.

Dispute Agent will make it possible for you to:

  1. View all dispute-related documentation online, including copy requests, fulfillments, non-fulfillments, and representments.
  2. Receive notification alerts for incoming items.
  3. Create and/or submit chargeback questionnaires online.
  4. View all events related to a case.
  5. Research transaction activity, including authorizations and clearing & settlement information, from one location.
  6. Give specific access and permissions to specific users.

Look for a Dispute Agent update in next month's issue of Touchpoints!

Industry Update
Below are interesting stories about the card industry that have made headlines over the last few weeks. Links to the full articles are included below.

To access any Card Forum articles you will need to register with Card Forum. Card Forum is a great tool that provides free access to valuable card information and articles. To register, just follow the directions when you click the link.

 

  • U.S. lawmakers were on the warpath following the CardSystems Solutions security breach and the nine major consumer data thefts and losses reported this year.
    (click for full     article "    Data Legislation Seems Assured")
    - Card Forum

 

  • Less than twelve months ago variable interest rate credit cards were almost a full percentage lower than their fixed rate counterparts. However, today prime is 2% higher. How has that impacted variable rates? 
    (click for full press     release "Rate Rise    ")
    -CardWeb.com