Fifth Third Processing Solutions and Bling Nation Deliver Mobile Payments to Virtually Any Financial Institution in the Country

CINCINNATI and PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Fifth Third Processing Solutions, a premier full-service payment solutions provider, and Bling Nation, a leading provider of mobile payments and rich communications services at check out, open the door for virtually any financial institution that is part of the Fifth Third Processing Solutions network to seamlessly enable the Bling services for their financial institutions' debit card customers.

Processing clients of Fifth Third Processing Solutions are able to leverage the Bling Nation platform to help differentiate their services to bank debit card customers with compelling new capabilities like easy-to-use social mobile payments that work with any mobile phone with any carrier, so long as the phone is enabled with text messaging.  

Financial institutions can simply plug into the platform and access Bling Nation's community of businesses.  These businesses distribute Bling Nation's proprietary micro-chip BlingTags^® to their best customers who can then link those tags to their debit cards.  Any financial institution across the country can join the Fifth Third Processing Solutions network to enable tap-and-pay social mobile capabilities in their area to provide rich communication services to their customers.  BlingTags are also more secure than plastic and help to reduce the risk of identity fraud since they store no personal information.

Working with financial institutions and thousands of businesses across the country, Bling Nation's platform is compelling for businesses due to its engaging communication capabilities and lower payment processing fees, as compared to plastic.  Businesses can take advantage of robust customer analytics and compelling viral marketing capabilities at checkout.  In addition, businesses get convenient set up with a simplified acceptance ecosystem, as Bling Nation provides a "BlingBox" starter kit with all the tools needed to embrace social mobile payments, including BlingTags and marketing materials.

"Leveraging our past success across six different states, Fifth Third Processing Solutions lets us reach hundreds of financial institutions across the country enabling us to expand our business quickly and allowing us to reach more consumers through a broad spectrum of potential partners," said Meyer Malka, Co-CEO at Bling Nation.  "The Bling Nation platform provides a highly secure and innovative way for businesses to retain and attract new customers by distributing BlingTags to their best customers who can in turn link those tags to their bank debit card."

"Our clients rely on our processing expertise to offer solutions that further complement their existing financial service solutions," commented Royal Cole, President, Financial Institution Services at Fifth Third Processing Solutions.  "We are excited to make this new technology available to them.  We continue to identify and develop additional alternatives for our clients to differentiate and grow card products and penetration for the customers they serve.  Not only can this solution help accomplish that and attract new customers, Bling Nation provides cardholders a new way to pay for merchandise."

Fifth Third Processing Solutions' product suite also includes ATM terminal driving and monitoring, ATM and debit card transaction authorization and processing, credit issuing and processing services, national and regional gateway services, comprehensive ancillary services including fraud detection, card production, rewards programs and other consultative services.

About Bling Nation

Bling Nation is a social mobile payment platform that connects financial institutions and businesses, allowing customers to use their mobile phones to tap-and-pay for purchases and receive text account balance, transaction confirmations, and rewards at check out.  Business and financial institutions eliminate payment processing middlemen, while differentiating their services. For more information, visit www.blingnation.com.

Fifth Third Processing Solutions, LLC delivers innovative payment transaction processing and acceptance solutions to create and support complex payment strategies for merchants, businesses, and financial institutions around the world. A pioneer in card payment acceptance in the early 1970s, Fifth Third Processing Solutions is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and is a joint venture with Advent International and Fifth Third Bank, a subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB)

As a premier full service payment solutions provider, the Company provides servicing solutions and product engineering for financial institutions' and retailers' credit card, debit card, merchant and private label programs processing over 33.3 billion ATM and point of sale transactions and over $315.5 billion in debit and credit card sales volume annually. The Company supports over 180,000 merchant and financial institution locations and 11,000 ATMs in 44 states and 11 countries. According to the Nilson Report (March 2010), the Company is the third largest U.S. merchant transaction acquirer. Learn more at www.FTPSLLC.com.

SOURCE Fifth Third Processing Solutions, LLC