Snowdrop Solutions Ltd. today unveiled a partnership with Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, to provide innovative location-enriched services to banks and financial services firms throughout the Asia Pacific region, enabling millions of consumers to better see and understand where they spend their money.
The two companies said they would work together to distribute Snowdrop’s technologies and services to Visa’s existing banking customers in order to meet the accelerating demand for new customer-centric banking services across the region.
Today, many consumers are confused when reviewing their card transactions. Often, they do not recognize the name of the merchant, or they do not remember where the purchase took place.
By leveraging Snowdrop’s Merchant Reconciliation System (or MRS), along with Google Maps Platform, these banks can quickly turn confusing transactions into clear merchant names and display on a map with a logo where the transaction actually took place.
“We turn confusion into clarity,” says Ken Hart, CEO and founder of London-based Snowdrop Solutions. “And that builds consumer confidence.” He adds that the combination of Google Maps Platform, Snowdrop and Visa’s deep expertise and reach will accelerate the adoption of other location-enriched banking services such as reward programmes, onboarding and fraud-detection throughout the dynamic region.
“People in Asia Pacific use digital payments instead of cash for an increasing range of everyday purchases. That can add up into a long list of transactions on their bank statement that’s frustrating to review and leaves people wondering where they spent what. Using data to provide more details about each transaction removes that guessing game,” said Adeline Kim, Head of Data Solutions, Asia Pacific, Visa. “Snowdrop is making it easier for people to track where they’re spending, which fits with Visa’s goal to make money movement a more secure, convenient experience.”
The new services are easy and quickly deployed as Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This means that a bank can quickly set up and roll out the new services in just a few weeks. To work, MRS relies on information in a payment processing message and therefore does not require the bank to track the location of the consumer’s phone.
The benefit for banks is clear. In Europe, for example, Snowdrop’s MRS has reduced call centre and other operational costs for banks, whilst boosting customer loyalty scores.
This announcement follows a similar partnership announced by Visa and Snowdrop in Europe several months ago.
