FSM has developed a range of electronic customer messaging solutions specifically for the financial services industry that allow banks to improve their communication with customers via a range of electronic channels of the customer's choice, including SMS, email and fax.

"The acquisition of FSM by POINT is a strategic move for both companies as it allows us to offer our financial services clients an easy and cost effective means of improving and optimising interaction with their customers," said John Thompson, CEO of POINT Australia. "With Australia ranked the number two country in Asia for both issuing and acquiring credit card fraud, we see real demand for FSM's solutions in this market. But the business opportunity is indeed global."

For banks, the FSM FraudAlert® messaging solution provides a cost effective means of contacting customers about out-of-character transactions on their credit cards. It enables banks to expand their threshold on what constitutes out-of-character behaviour so that more transactions can be checked with customers and more fraudulent activity detected and stopped.

Kostas Siourthas, founder and managing director of FSM, joins the POINT Australia management team as Director of Sales and Marketing. "FSM's solutions were created in consultation with the world's leading banks to address their need for enhanced e-communication solutions. But they need to be able to do this in a way that makes sense for their business, optimising existing systems and mitigating risk. With POINT's technology implemented in over 35 countries and 18 languages at leading institutions such as Deutsche Bank, Allianz, AIG and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, our combined FSM and POINT solution meets that critical need," said Siourthas.

FSM has also developed two subscriber-based alert solutions. FSM MyAlert Cards allows credit card customers to set alerts on their card activity, such as balance statements. Further, it can notify a cardholder of when they are nearing their credit card limit and can offer instant limit increase opportunities. FSM MyAlert Enterprise allows financial institutions to communicate with their customers on any aspect of their relationship by any medium the customer selects.