PIN-over-Phone - the end of the PIN Mailer? 

A new 'PIN-over-Phone' service from NewVoiceMedia and Card Payments Processor Metavante enables  a card holder to retrieve sensitive card information such as PIN number, transaction history and balance in a phone call. It could herald the end of the expensive and time consuming PIN Mailer.

In the past, card customers had to wait several days for a letter (a PIN Mailer) containing their secret PIN number to arrive before being able to utilise the card. This letter could only be sent to the recipient’s home address and could be intercepted, which is an ever present security threat. From the card issuer’s perspective, preparing and posting a letter is both time and cost consuming – even more so since they may need to be issued more than once if the client forgets the PIN.

Benefits to the Card Issuer

• No more expensive PIN Mailings. The caller pays most of the operating costs of the service making it financially very attractive
• The technology is provided as an off-the-shelf 'White Label' hosted service - it can be configured to your specific needs (messaging, voice artist etc) and be up and running within a couple of weeks.
• The Card Issuer does not need to buy expensive encryption keys or spend time/money developing a bespoke solution.
• Payment Card Industry standards compliant

 Benefits to the Card Holder

• No waiting for the PIN Mailer to arrive
• A call can be made as soon as the card arrives and from any location. It means that the card holder can call from overseas to check on the latest charges made to the card.
• More secure than a PIN Mailer which can be intercepted. The fact that no human is in the loop, and secure encryption using a pair of Hardware Security Modules is used at both ends of the computer links, means that the system meets the rigorous PIN security standards imposed by the Payment Card Industry. 

April 8th 2008: Card Payments Processor Metavante Technologies Ltd. and Hosted Telephony provider NewVoiceMedia have announced an agreement that will allow callers to retrieve essential card account information including their PIN securely over the phone. This service – a white label IVR (Interactive Voice Response) - developed by NewVoiceMedia and resold by Metavante, provides a more secure solution with significant cost savings to the card issuers subject to the normal waiver from MasterCard®. It also enables the cardholder to retrieve their PIN information in minutes from any location around the world.

The outsourced service is believed to be the first that allows third party card issuers to deliver sensitive information over the phone with no additional IT development. This newly developed solution requires a small amount of configuration by Metavante to meet the specific client’s requirements – and this work can usually be completed in a matter of days. Previously the development costs for any one issuer would have been prohibitive; this multi-tenant hosted solution shares the costs across all the clients so making the solution not only technically possible, but also very attractive financially. The first customer is expected to ‘go-live’ by the end of the month, and Metavante reports that 10 other clients are already in the pipeline.

Pre-paid cards are the new cash

All forecasts point to significant growth in the numbers of prepaid cards in Europe over the next five years. While some of these forecasts may be aggressive, it is clear that growth will be significant given the tremendous simplicity and usefulness of the prepaid card concept. Historically, cards have been a by-product of either a current account or the credit business. Prepaid is the ultimate card product, because it can stand alone, and be used by anyone.

In the past, card customers had to wait several days for a letter containing their secret PIN number to arrive before being able to utilise the card. This letter could only be sent to the recipient’s home address and could be intercepted, which is an ever present security threat. From the card issuer’s perspective, preparing and posting a letter is both time and cost consuming – even more so since they may need to be issued more than once if the client forgets the PIN. With  the white Label IVR service Metavante now have a secure way of letting customers obtain their PIN number as well as their account balance and recent transactions over the phone. Initially, the development for the new service was aimed at prepaid cards; although the service will work equally well for any payment card.

The solution uses an automated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system from NewVoiceMedia. Callers are prompted to enter their card number and the access code previously issued during the application process. Once the caller is authenticated they receive the card PIN number as well as other services such as balance and recent transaction history over the phone. The fact that no human is in the loop, and secure encryption using a pair of Hardware Security Modules is used at both ends of the computer links, means that the system meets the rigorous PIN security standards imposed by the Payment Card Industry. 

According to NewVoiceMedia CEO, Jonathan Grant, “It’s my money and I want it now!” was the driving force that led us to develop a secure service that allows callers to retrieve their PIN number over the phone. Grant added, “The Metavante solution is just one of many applications we now provide for secure transactions over the telephone. Being a Hosted solution means that we can deploy this service to new Metavante clients in a matter of days”.

Kevin Kelson, SVP Payments Processing at Metavante added, “Working with NewVoiceMedia on the IVR service has given Metavante a real strategic edge in this highly competitive market. This allows us to offer our clients a solution that is not only easy to implement, but also more cost effective and secure than traditional PIN Mailers”.  

Metavante Technologies Ltd. is a leading European debit and prepaid card payments processor that became a Metavante company on 10 January 2008. Metavante Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: MV) is the parent company of United States-based Metavante Corporation. Metavante Corporation delivers banking and payments technologies to over 8,600 financial services firms and businesses worldwide. Metavante products and services drive account processing for deposit, loan and trust systems, image-based and conventional check processing, electronic funds transfer, consumer healthcare payments, electronic presentment and payment, business transformation services, and payment network solutions including the NYCE Network, a leading ATM/PIN debit network and provider of mobile financial services. Metavante (www.metavante.com) is headquartered in Milwaukee, USA. Metavante and NYCE are registered trademarks of Metavante Corporation, which is the principal subsidiary of Metavante Technologies, Inc.