Part of ACI’s UP Retail Payments solution, ACI Issuer is a configurable card management system that supports any type of payment and offers advanced analytics, reporting and loyalty management. To address the growing financial challenges resulting from the COVID-19 crisis, ACI Issuer provides a series of capabilities — Installment Pay Option, Payments Holiday, Credit Card Expiry Bypass and Virtual Cards — to enable banks to respond more quickly to market demands and regulations.

Installment Pay Option
With many consumers and businesses experiencing temporary cash management issues, ACI Issuer enables banks to offer customers a payment installment plan for one-time purchases. Banks can set up a repayment schedule based on a consumer or business request, preventing delinquencies because of temporary cash management issues.

Payments Holiday
Many regulators and banks around the world are giving credit card holders, loan holders (e.g., mortgage, auto) and others relief from principle and interest payments for up to 6 months as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. ACI Issuer enables banks to temporarily hold interest or penalties by offering a blanket or partial “payments holiday.”

Credit Card Expiry Bypass
Since trade and manufacturing have slowed globally, some banks are anticipating a shortage of physical cards to replace customers’ expired cards. ACI Issuer can be configured to bypass the expiry date check for certain transaction types so that customers can still access their cash and make payments.

Virtual Cards
Banks can normally issue cards that limit the type of transactions cardholders can make. For example, employees cannot use cards issued for business travel to buy groceries. However, during these unprecedented times, ACI Issuer enables banks to allow business customers to issue virtual cards (that are only available via a mobile wallet) to help employees, for example with grocery shopping.

“We are actively working with banks and financial intermediaries around the world, so they can help their customers during this time of economic uncertainty and increasing financial stress,” said Ruth Fornell, executive vice president, ACI Worldwide. “The features within ACI Issuer enable consumers and businesses to better manage their finances during this crisis.”