The combination of heightened regulation and antiquated systems is driving the cost to support issuing cards and managing the lifecycle of customer accounts.

"ACI Issuer is designed to help financial institutions lower operating costs with expected reductions in new product development, long-term maintenance and infrastructure costs." said Jeff Hale, senior vice president, retail payments at ACI Worldwide. "The solution not only reduces costs it can be leveraged to issue multiple card types in a short timeframe."

Issuers can eliminate duplicate systems by issuing debit, credit, pre-paid and commercial cards as well as offering unsecured loans from a single issuing platform. Using ACI Issuer as a single platform also gives financial institutions a unified view of customers, accounts, payment types and transactions. A single view of the customer improves the ability of customer service representatives to respond to inquiries and resolve issues, increasing customer satisfaction.

Customers who take the latest release will also receive the following benefits:

• Reduce infrastructure costs with support for IBM System p
• Lower application development costs through new SOA-based business services
• Lower maintenance costs by eliminating multiple issuing platforms
• Reduce fraud rates with real time fraud detection from Proactive Risk Manager

"Financial institutions continue to face an increasingly complex and challenging environment with greater demands being placed on IT systems. A majority of financial institutions are dissatisfied with their technology capabilities, which means potential costs could reach unacceptable levels," said Madeline K. Aufseeser, senior analyst, Aite Group. "With margins constantly being squeezed, payment system owners need to be able to control IT costs while improving capabilities and streamlining improvements for new feature and product enhancements."

ACI IsI Issuer 4.4 is available now.