The payment card is a plastic card that embeds a device used to identify the cardholder and the issuing bank or financial institution. The first identification device was applied to a magnetic stripe however, to meet the growing needs for security and to counter frauds, since 1993 a chip was embedded in most payment cards. With respect to magnetic stripe, the chip allows to more secure transactions due to the ability to read and write information on the chip and the opportunity to process data when a microprocessor chip is used. Moreover, thanks to greater memory capacity and microprocessors, smart cards can be used to access multiple service platforms as several applications may be stored on the card (ID data, access, competition points ...); this feature is refereed to as "multi-application". Magnetic stripe cards can support up to two payment applications such as direct access to the account (debit card) and/or access to a credit line (credit card).
Payment card types are typically based on the timing when the cardholder is debited:Credit card (pay later)
- Deferred debit/charge card: the most common type of credit card in Italy. It is usually offered as additional product on a bank account. Allows to defer payment of purchases for a short period (usually 30 days for personal cards and 30-60 days for business cards) with no additional cost to the cardholder, thus allowing to pay the expenses incurred over a month, a month later
- Credit card with installment payments (revolving): allows to pay purchases in installments, i.e. the balance does not have to be paid in full every month while a minimum monthly payment is required usually based on the balance amount. The rescheduling involves an additional cost to the cardholder due to interests on the outstanding credit, allowed up to a maximum amount referred to as credit limit. In Italy in the last few years credit cards with a revolving option are increasingly popular, as it has been the case in other countries in the recent past
Debit card (pay now)
- Cardholder accounts are debited at approximately the same time of debit card purchases or Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) withdrawals. Debit cards in Italy are known as ‘Bancomat cards’ from the first national debit scheme, owned and operated by the Consortium Bancomat. Other debit schemes available in Italy are V-Pay operated by Visa and Maestro operated by MasterCard. Through the combination (co-badging) with international schemes many debit cards issued in Italy may be used worldwide. Cardholder identification is performed through a 5-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN), while card authentication at the terminal is performed via the magnetic stripe or chip embedded in the card
Prepaid card (pay before)
- purchases or withdrawals through prepaid cards are deducted from the balance available on the card. It is an of electronic purse that can be reloaded by the cardholder, and so there is no need for a bank account. Prepaid cards are frequently used for Internet purchases due to security reasons: if ID codes or card number are stolen or violated only the card balance is at risk. On the other hand prepaid cards usually do not offer any protection in case of fraud, while credit cards usually cap the liability of the cardholder. Most prepaid cards can be used on the same schemes of credit cards. Recently an evolution of the standard prepaid cards is available: it offers the main bank account functionalities such as an IBAN code and opportunity to transfer and receive funds to and from the card. These types of prepaid cards are referred to card accounts. They were developed with the ‘un-banked’ individuals in mind as they bear lower costs than a regular bank account (eg. in Italy card accounts bear no account-specific tax duty)
- Strategy
- Market Analysis & Research
- Marketing Communication
- Business planning
- Innovation
- Project Management
- Training
Commercial cards
- Developed product offering and sales & acquisition strategies for major banks in the definition and launch of a full new range of commercial payment card and products, insurance packages and services targeted to SMEs, Corporate and the Public sector/government agencies
- Developed a complete offer of insurance packages to satisfy target customer needs and business-specific services related with the business payment solutions developed and to be launched
Acquisition & utilization improvement
- Issuing: Developed comprehensive payment card-related Sales & Acquisition strategies for Issuing: Developed comprehensive payment card-related Sales & Acquisition strategies for issuers on both consumer, business and corporate cards. Highlighted functionalities of business & consumer payment solutions and benefits to different segments, identified sales channels and suggested set of actions to exploit them, developed a structured framework with roles and responsibilities of all parties involved aimed at improving acquisition through all channels identified and motivate usage and recommended set of proactive actions aimed at up & cross selling payment products, insurance packages and services and consolidating client relationships
- Acquiring: Developed sales & acquisition strategies for acquirers focused on both traditional and contactless POS terminals.
Contactless payments
- Developed strategic plan to introduce and launch of contactless payment solution in the Italian market. Advised issuers, acquirers, banks and merchants in the development of their business plan and defined pilot and mass roll-out deployment strategies in a number of geographical areas. Defined contactless functionalities of credit, debit and pre-paid cards. Supported with marketing, communication and program management activities on both large initiatives and specific projects
Prepaid cards
- Developed strategic, functional and technical recommendations for a major issuer to consumer giovani e piccole aziende. Condotto segmentazione dei mercati di riferimento, analisi developed a new prepaid payment card offering targeted to both consumer segments and small delle necessità percepite nei servizi di pagamento e servizi aggiuntivi dai segmenti individuati, business customers. Conducted market segmentation, payment and additional services needs of the analizzato la concorrenza, sviluppato nuovi prodotti prepagati ed il loro posizionamento segments identified, analysed competitor offerings, developed new prepaid products and their positioning
Product positioning
- Positioned current retail payment cards offering and developed new products based on market segmentation. Developed concepts, functional requirements, card layouts, project schedules and budget jointly with the client and other business partners
Revitalized mature products
- Led projects aimed at revitalizing mature credit & debit card products. Analysed current offering, customer segmentation, profitability and client-specific needs. Developed business plan for specific payment products and additional functionalities for products of the current offering. Developed acquisition strategy, advertising initiatives and loyalty program
Card portfolio migration
- Developed a structured framework tailored to migration-specific needs to manage client contact actions and priorities, timing of migration process, roles and responsibilities of business units involved. Recommended initiatives to improve success of migration through actions aimed at motivating customers to migrate to new business card offering, provided visibility on opportunities offered by unused sales channels. Recommended set of proactive actions aimed at up & cross-selling payment products, insurance packages and services and consolidating client relationships
Luncheon vouchers
- Developed strategy and designed luncheon-card products, both stand alone and with payment application to improve market attractiveness of a luncheon vouchers issuer. Assessed fiscal and legal implications of product and market-related decisions involved
Consumer credit
- Market trends: Analyzed spend of deferred-debit and credit cards in several European countries, trends in household savings, risk and social impact of consumer debt, opportunities and potential of credit cards in Europe
- Acquisition strategy and methodology: Analyzed many experiences across Europe and North America along with methodologies and acquisition channels used and suggested most appropriate combination for the Italian and other European markets Conducted a 2-day workshop on the topics developed
Commercial cards
- Analyzed customer needs and developed functional characteristics of new products
- Developed comprehensive set of documentation for management, IT, communication and marketing departments and sales personnel to support product launch and operational guidelines
- Developed a comprehensive business payment solutions offering complete with a set of insurance packages and business-specific services to satisfy customer needs within the target segments
Market Research
- Developed comprehensive set of documentation for management, IT, communication marketing e comunicazione e per personale di vendita a supporto del lancio del prodotto e and marketing departments and sales personnel to support product launch and come linee guida operative operational guidelines Sviluppato una soluzione di pagamento completa con una serie di pacchetti assicurativi e Developed a comprehensive business payment solutions offering complete with a set of servizi associati per soddisfare le esigenze della clientela nei segmenti target insurance packages and business-specific services to satisfy customer needs within the target segments
Benchmarking
- Performed benchmark and identified gaps on business payment product features, insurance coverage and assistance packages, business-specific services on both a national and European-wide basis. Analyzed gaps and recommended potential opportunities to be ahead of the competition
Acquiring market assessment
- Developed a complete Italian acceptance market assessment including competitive analysis, sector and merchant-specific market data research and developed set of recommendations to exploit both traditional acquiring and contactless acceptance terminals
New product & proposition development
- Developed market analysis and segmentations aimed at the launch of new payment cards (credit, debit and prepaid) in the corporate, business, and consumer segments. Analysis were focused on cardholder benefits of the services offered, through ‘de-visu’ and telephone interviews of statistical significant samples and valuation of successful cases. In particular we identified needs and sophistication of business customer segments regarding payment and procurement, insurance cover & assistance packages, payment product-related services, potential future needs. Based on these analysis we built tailored payment products & services, insurance packages and services offerings to satisfy needs and flexibility of each target customer segments
Market segmentation
- Segmented consumer and business banks customer base and developed new payment cards offering target to identified segments. In particular we analysed a number of parameters to segment customers aimed at developing innovative product and service offering. Segmented market and grouped customers into clusters based on financial similarities, industry and purchasing behaviors, insurance and services needs, business sophistication, legal entity category. Recommended payment & service offering to the identified clusters based on analysis of their characteristics
Commercial cards
- Developed marketing communication and cardholder incentive strategies for major banks in the definition and lunch of a full new range of commercial payment card and products, insurance packages and services targeted to SMEs, Corporate and the Public sector/government agencies
Marketing-related initiatives
- Developed marketing initiatives, such as structured relational databases of customer contacts & prospects, newsletter and web-related content aimed at increasing payment card usage among customer base and increase issued cards. Project managed projects through coordination of several implementation teams
Communication strategy
- Developed set of practical tools helpful to identify relevant client needs, identify and convey relevant messages to trigger interest in product and service offering, communicate effectively to target customer segments. Developed set of guidelines useful to branch personnel, sales force and contact center professionals to manage customer objections on acquisition and usage issues. Recommended most appropriate language and tone to be used with the different customer segments
Incentive programs
- Developed concept and functional characteristics of incentive programs related to payment and fuel cards. In particular we defined appropriate incentives and specific reward mechanisms for target customers, validated by cost-benefit analysis, segmented target customer base to identify target segments and top spenders, defined incentive offering in terms of merchant categories and individual merchants on the basis of target segment/top spender preferences, created Internet portal tailored with issuer’s look and feel. Developed and implemented a process to continuously improve effectiveness of the incentives
Marketing & Communication strategy
- Crafted strategic recommendations and guidelines useful to change marketing and communication aspects and typology of service offering based on analysis of truly perceived cardholder experience. Developed marketing and communication material and tested the effectiveness of the contents to the cardholders
Contactless payment feasibility studies
- Designed and developed feasibility studies of advanced payments platforms including contactless payments that use RFId-based credit, debit and pre-paid cards fully compatible with the ISO-14443 type B standard
Acquiring-related financial modelling
- Developed acquiring financial models to assess business opportunities in different sectors of acquiring and in the contactless and mobile-related spaces. The models were developed to take into account revenues, sector-specific costs and costs related to the different merchant typologies. Developed business plans to support financial models assumptions and outputs
Strategy di comunicazione
- Developed set of practical tools helpful to identify relevant client needs, identify and convey relevant messages to trigger interest in product and service offering, communicate effectively to target customer segments. Developed set of guidelines useful to branch personnel, sales force and contact center professionals to manage customer objections on acquisition and usage issues. Recommended most appropriate language and tone to be used with the different customer segments
Consumer Credit
- Provided insights on relevant payment-related innovations that hit the market in the last few years and ideas for the future along with associated benefits for both issuers and final customers and their potential opportunities
Multi-application & NFC solutions
- Developed strategic recommendations for a major issuer, functional and technological guidelines aimed at launching a new payment card that allows access to public transport services, leisure & entertainment environments, advanced and web-based citizen and healthcare services including digital signature features. All services offered may be accessed through multi-application microprocessor contactless payment cards as well as Near Field Communication capable mobile phones. Involved in the evaluation of technical solutions and product functionalities
Portfolio performance management
- Identified and shared key performance indicators (KPIs), developed monitoring tool to track identified KPIs and user-friendly format report, supported client in data extraction, analyzed portfolio performance data and benchmark with relevant market averages, evaluated necessary improvements, developed template to track portfolio performance enabling client to measure results and intervene if and when necessary
Monitoring tools
- Developed monitoring tools aimed at tracking economic performance and loyalty of each customer and implemented a feedback-based performance improvement methodology
Tender development
- Developed official tenders for advanced payment solutions that involved e-Commerce, credit, debit and prepaid cards based on microprocessor technology
Sales force training
- Developed training material aimed at training sales force on functionalities, characteristics and benefits to the users of payment card and related services. Trained issuers’ trainers on functionalities of business payment products, services and insurance coverage linked to payment products, benefits to customers and issuers. Chaired videoconference training sessions for a number of functional areas: marketing, sales channel & sales force, branch directors & in-branch personnel, contact unit professionals
Merchant training
- Developed training material for merchants in several industries and provided consulting and guideline services to merchants on the correct use of payment cards and terminals based on innovative and advanced technologies, such as payment cards and terminals that allow contactless payments