DiDigital Transactions News wrote a piece regarding the announcement by Revolution that Fifth Third would issue RevolutionCard's. ‘A Major Pivot’ for Revolution Money As It Shifts Its Focus to Issuers
(October 20, 2009 - Digital Transactions News) Revolution announced on Tuesday that Fifth Third Bancorp would be a RevolutionCard issuer, Revolution Money revealed a new focus on building its cardholder base and disclosed another $20 million venture-capital investment on top of the $42 million it received last spring.
Cincinnati-based Fifth Third is now Revolution Money’s main issuer for so-called prime consumers, those with the highest credit scores, chief executive Jason Hogg tells Digital Transactions News. The bank’s merchant-acquiring arm, Fifth Third Processing Solutions, already had been offering Revolution Card acceptance to merchants.
The addition of Fifth Third marks a shift by St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Revolution Money from building its merchant base to a focus on card issuance. “From our standpoint this is a major pivot,” Hogg says.
Revolution Money’s PIN-based credit card charges merchants a flat 0.5% per transaction. That saves merchants money but produces far less fee income for issuers than Visa and MasterCard credit transactions, which average a bit below 2% in interchange, the fee paid by the acquirer to the issuer. Acquirers typically pass on the cost to merchants.
So what’s in it for Fifth Third?
So what’s in it for Fifth Third?
“It brings new relationships to us, we will get new customers, card customers, out of this partnership,” Jon Groch, Fifth Third Bank director of Bankcard Services, tells Digital Transactions News.
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