FICO introduced Merchant Monitoring Solution (MMS), a fraud and risk-management tool for companies that process card transactions for merchants. It provides the necessary connections between merchants, card associations, and issuing banks.

MMS identifies fraud, financial, and compliance risk using rules management and analytics, and gives acquirers advanced case management to investigate suspicious activity.

Merchant acquirers manage card authorizations for merchants, pay issuer fees on their behalf, and act as intermediaries between merchants and card issuers. In doing so, they take on risks associated with transactions until the transactions are final. This includes the risk that retailers fail to comply with payment card association rules, and the risk of transaction fraud. The risks for acquirers are growing in today’s economic environment, and changes in both the association rules and payment card regulatory frameworks introduce new dynamics to the acquiring landscape.

MMS helps merchant acquirers avoid losses from merchants in the form of card fraud and collusion, and identifies the possibility of financial compliance failure. In addition, it helps merchant acquirers prepare for the possibility that smaller merchants may declare bankruptcy or experience other unexpected financial events. By implementing MMS, acquirers can more profitably manage merchant relationships and mitigate known as well as emerging risks.

Acquirers can define their own metrics for daily calculations such as total sales and historical performance. Transaction settlement details are captured automatically each day. Customizable analytics add sophistication in high-risk situations, such as when working with a new merchant.

http://www.fico.com/en/Company/News/Pages/05-01-2012.aspx

 

 

[This article was posted on May 15, 2012, on the website of ABA Banking Journal, www.ababj.com.]    

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