Fiserv Boosts Card Services (FISV)

The latest addition will provide a card issuance solution for financial institutions and will enable branch staff of financial institution clients to issue plastic Visa or MasterCard branded debit or credit cards for consumers in a branch location when they open new accounts or if their card gets misplaced.

The new addition in Fiserv’s portfolio will empower the company to offer optimum solution to clients for meeting their business objectives, which can be either be a central or instant issuance or a combination of both.

Fiserv provides a seamless connection between its central issuance bureau and instant issuance solutions deployed at financial institutions. Before deciding to issue cards in a branch, financial institutions must take into account issues such as the operating environment, association compliance, product strategy and processor integration. Fiserv plays a major role in enabling clients to decide by weighing these issues along with other aspects of their payment portfolios.

Earlier, Fiserv launched its Mobile ID Healthcare Card enabling insurance companies to provide easier and more secure access of account information to its clients.

Fiserv’s Mobile ID Healthcare Cards is now accessible through smartphone, iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Several other services such as View Card, Email Card, Fax Card and Order Card shall also be rendered by Fiserv’s new services platform.

As per the Global Mobile Health Market Report 2010 – 2015, higher adoption of smarphone applications will encourage the mHealth industry to grow. Moreover, it is expected that out of 1.4 billion smartphone users, the coverage of the industry will reach 500 million in 2015. Furthermore, insurance companies are likely to gain from Fiserv’s services through increased demand in the market.

We believe Fiserv’s integrated, wide-ranging suite of products will boost its growth going forward. We currently have a long-term recommendation of Neutral for Fiserv. The stock also bears a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a short-term rating of Hold.