TAS Group Unveils Card 3.0 Card Management Platform (March 17, 2014)
Payments technology company TAS Group, based in Italy with U.S. headquarters in Las Vegas, recently launched its Card 3.0 Card Management Platform in the U.S. to offer program managers greater customization capabilities, down to the cardholder level, and quicker time to market for new programs. The Java-based modular software is integrated with Green Dot’s Reload Network. TAS Group U.S. Country Manager Ennio Ponzetto tells Paybefore that discussions with program managers and processors have been positive. “We all want the same thing: to get more cards out in the market more quickly,” he adds. If a program manager wants to create and launch a new program, what used to take months now takes just a few weeks, according to Ponzetto.
Although TAS Group can serve as a backend processor for closed-loop programs, its work on the open-loop side does not replace third-party processors. Instead, Ponzetto says, its technology helps program managers work more efficiently with their processors. For example, some processes, like checking balances or limits on a card, could be done through TAS Group’s platform, rather than reverting to processors, increasing efficiency and improving program managers’ margins.
TAS Group is migrating its existing clients in Europe, including Poste Italiane, to the new platform as well. “Poste Italiane has 50 different types of cards in its portfolio. We created this Java-based platform to help them and our other clients get their ideas into the market more quickly.” Ponzetto notes. “Before, they would bring their ideas to us and we’d have a programmer create the code. Now, a business analyst can sit down and set up a new program in an hour and then send it off for approval.”
Giving program managers more flexibility to add new features, segment their portfolios and create new programs seems to be growing in importance for the industry as processors, such as Global Processing Solutions and Yalamanchili, enter the U.S. market touting customization capabilities.
