Filtering Payments with FIS: More choices aren’t always better

Directing dollars into specific spending channels can benefit consumers, program managers, and payments companies.
  
FIS has been providing filters for government programs for some time, and it is now expanding the technology so that it can be used for other applications. Most card filtering today is either done on closed-loop networks, or is based on wider criteria like merchant category codes.  

In the latest episode of the IPA Payments Pod, we talk with Deirdre Ives, general manager of prepaid at FIS, about how filtering works, how it has been used, and where it might go in the future. The company plans to offer filtered cards that will eventually be able to filter transactions down to the product level. These programs would run on open networks so the cards could be used at multiple merchants. This would allow for new types of benefits and budgeting programs, such as wellness programs where a card could only be used at gyms or for healthy foods. The technology could open up new types of programs ranging from health and wellness to travel budgeting.