Bank of America patents innovative technology for corporate cards
04 Apr 2008
Bank of America today said that it had been granted a patent for a new, industry-leading technology called Active Card Control, that would allow its customers to manage the available funds on corporate purchasing cards dynamically and in real time, reducing the risk of theft and enabling client organisations to gain increased control over employee expenditures.
The Active Card Control technology is an extension of Bank of America's commercial card product suite. Using the technology, clients can reset the available funds on each card as frequently as necessary through a web-based tool. When initially issued, cards will have $0 in available funds until the client is ready to pay the supplier. At that time, the client submits a purchase request through the bank's proprietary Bank of America Works application which uses the Active Card Control technology to fund individual cards with the exact amount of the invoices to be paid. When those purchases are billed to the card, the available funds go to zero.
"The many successes of our Bank of America card programmes led to the implementation of this purchasing card solution with Active Card Control," said Jana Clark, financial services manager for CaroMont Health, an independent, not-for-profit healthcare system with nearly 3,500 healthcare professionals in the Southeast. "We have seen substantial improvement in the efficiency of our process, and we feel reassured by the card's security features."
Key benefits of Active Card Control for the client include improved administrative efficiency and lower costs from not having to raise and lower credit limits or change single transaction limits; increased control over purchasing due to a mandatory approval process; reduced paperwork; and ease of implementation as purchase requests can be used with any card program that uses the Works platform.
"Client feedback so far has exceeded our expectations, and we're confident in the potential of this solution to drive revenue and client satisfaction," said Dub Newman, GPS product management executive. "This purchasing card solution further demonstrates our commitment to driving innovation in everything we do."
