FSS (Financial Software and Systems), a globally leading provider of integrated payment products and a payments processor, has introduced significant enhancements to its prepaid multi-currency card offering, aimed at providing greater choice, security, and convenience to international travellers.

As countries around the globe relax pandemic-induced travel restrictions, cross-border travel is beginning to show signs of recovery. FSS Unified Issuance Platform (Prepaid) offers issuers the ability to launch their own branded card programmes for international travellers. The recent enhancements allow issuers to tap into early resurgent demand and deliver an improved travel experience to cardholders. Cardholders can set-up currency purses on demand, block and unblock their card, and request for an instant add-on card.

Speaking on the enhancements, Sathish N, Dy Chief Product Officer, FSS, said: “FSS Unified Issuance Platform powers 800 Million cards globally.  As a global leader in card management platforms, we continue to innovate at pace to help banks and FinTechs differentiate their cards portfolio. The current enhancements to our multi-currency forex card offering are another step to maximise customer delight and deliver exceptional experiences.”  

The new multi-currency payment solution enables customers to enjoy travelling without carrying cash or avoid dealing with fluctuating exchange rates.  Most prepaid multi-currency cards come with a set of currencies pre-defined by the bank.  FSS Unified Issuance Platform (Prepaid) has been enhanced to provide cardholders with the flexibility to add a currency purse on-demand to their existing prepaid account.  This is particularly useful for corporates as well as employees who can add currency purses on-demand.

Cardholders can instantaneously add a multi-currency wallet for any forex currency supported by the issuer. And the wallet is provisioned on verification that the cardholder does not have a pre-existing currency purse linked to the same card account. 

The cards automatically detect the local currency when making purchases at merchants or ATMs abroad and use the specific currency wallet for the transaction with no additional conversion or foreign transaction charges typically associated with using debit or credit cards abroad. In the event of a fund deficit in a specific wallet account, the monies are debited from other currency wallets - based on the priority defined by the cardholder. For instance, in the event of insufficient funds in the USD wallet but sufficient funds in the EUR wallet, the system automatically converts the equivalent of the total amount to EUR and debits it from the EUR wallet.  

To protect against fraud and ensure greater security, cardholders can switch on and switch off specific currency wallets when not in use. The other currency wallets linked to the card account remain active even if a particular currency wallet is temporarily switched off.

Cardholders can also opt for an add-on forex card linked to the primary multi-currency card. The linked multi-currency card has the same default currency wallet as the primary card. For instance, if a cardholder opts for a linked card product and the customer has a USD wallet, the same USD wallet can be tagged to both cards. In addition to physical cards, the system supports the issuance of instant virtual cards. Cardholders receive a single account statement detailing transaction performed using the parent and the link card.

For convenient buying and selling, cardholders can also set-up the exchange rate alert. The exchange rate alert can be set for a range of scenarios such as exchange rate exceeds or falls below a certain threshold value.

FSS Unified Issuance Platform (Prepaid), a modern card management platform, provides financial institutions with the flexibility to rapidly a range of innovative, vertical-specific products – general purpose cards, forex cards, eCommerce cards, gift cards, and payroll cards. An API-first platform, the FSS Unified Issuance Platform supports the issuance of virtual and physical cards and exposes APIs for critical functions of virtual card issuance, including card controls, currency management, and top-up.  Issuers can also expose APIs to third party providers to create a service ecosystem that addresses the complete travel needs of its customers.