Better payment and credit authorization processes for a global payments and card-issuing major

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The global card-based payment industry's processes continue to evolve in line with changing market needs. Players that are unable to update their customer-facing or back-end functionality run the risk of alienating customers and ultimately their competitive position.

Here is how Mindtree helped a global payments and card issuing giant upgrade its payment and credit authorization processes to become more competitive with its peers and build in flexibility for the future.

The challenge

The customer's existing business processes around payment and credit authorization had fallen behind the market and were too inflexible to adapt to changing customer expectations. The customer identified two urgent challenges for which it required assistance:

Unlike the users of other payment service providers, the customer's charge card customers had to pay their outstanding bills in full at the conclusion of each billing round. The customer wanted to introduce a threshold option that would give card holders greater flexibility in managing their purchase-to-payment cycle.
The customer's credit analysis process was highly inefficient. The implementation team had to manually input spreadsheet data into an analysis tool. Thereafter it would take two weeks to generate load files, which also needed to be validated by a dedicated team. The customer therefore wanted to introduce automation to streamline the process

Our solution

Mindtree and the customer collaborated to improve processes by introducing add-ons to the existing model through two work streams: PayBuffer option for charge cards; and calculator component for credit authorization.

PayBuffer option for charge card holders

Mindtree helped the customer develop a feature known as ‘PayBuffer'. Under this option, users are assigned a LoC (Line Of Credit) amount with a revolving facility. Once users reach this limit, any subsequent purchases are allocated back to ’due in full’ status and must be paid off at the end of the month. At cycle end, bills are generated with 100% charge balance and minimum due of the PayBuffer balance.

Calculator component for credit authorization process

Mindtree equipped the customer with an application built from scratch that allows formula generation through a step-by-step process. The output of this calculator component contains formula details that can be directly ported to mainframe systems. The user interface of the application allows users to configure formulae as a clickable prototype. Further, formula components can be drilled down to added component values. Once the formula is built, the entire set of components can be validated.