Affinion Group Earns Accolades Across Multiple Business and Product Lines

STAMFORD, Conn., June 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Affinion Group, a global leader in customer engagement solutions that enhance and extend the relationship and loyalty of millions of consumers of financial service, retail, hospitality and e-commerce companies, has earned independent honors or analyst recognition for the success of multiple product lines. Three of its largest and most popular business lines, including Identity Theft Protection, Travel and Banking Relationship Strategies Management received commendation.

While Affinion's clients consistently praise the company's solutions as a way to increase customer loyalty, Affinion's solutions are particularly valuable to financial institutions given the potential impact of the Durbin Amendment, which is likely to remove billions of dollars in debit card interchange fees from banks and credit unions.

Affinion offers financial institutions and a broad range of leading retailing and hospitality companies a wide variety of solutions that are tailored specifically to meet their individual needs and serve their customer relationship goals which typically include acquisition, service delivery, retention, data protection and incremental revenue generation.

Affinion is a leader in new product development and innovation on behalf of its clients and recently received recognition for three separate business lines:

Flex Checking

• NAFCU Services Corporation announced at its 2011 conference and exhibit that Flex Checking™, an Affinion product that allows banks and credit unions to incentivize customers for particular profitable behaviors, was the recipient of their 2011 Innovation Award. The winners were selected by the NAFCU Services Advisory Committee, which is composed of executives from across the country from credit unions of all sizes.  As part of Affinion's Flex Checking solution, which was previously endorsed by the American Bankers Association earlier this year, Affinion will work with financial institutions to understand current retail account performance and identify opportunities to maximize overall account profitability and growth. Affinion then creates a customized solution for each institution, providing a solid strategy to offer better value to customers in their checking account and creating an alternative, sustainable revenue stream for the institution.

Travel

• Affinion's Travel business has been ranked as the 15th largest travel agency in the US by Travel Weekly, in the magazine's annual Power List. This is up eight places, from number 23 on the 2010 list.  

Identity Theft Protection

• Research undertaken by research firm Millward Brown Optimor, sponsored by Affinion, showed that the Identity Theft Protection products offered on behalf of one of Affinion's largest financial institution partners led the partner to achieve the highest possible customer satisfaction rates from its customers.

"We continue to see significant demand from our partners, especially in the financial space, to create winning strategies that increase lifetime value of account holders by increasing retention and share of wallet," said Lloyd M. Wirshba, CEO of Affinion Group North America. "This recognition for three of our business lines echoes what we hear from our partners every day – that Affinion's solutions are good for both the partner and their customers, providing value-added services while generating additional income."

About Affinion Group

As a global leader with almost 40 years of experience, Affinion Group enhances the value of its partners' customer relationships by developing and marketing loyalty solutions. Leveraging its expertise in customer engagement, product development and targeted marketing, Affinion provides programs in subscription-based lifestyle services, personal protection, insurance and other areas to help generate increased customer loyalty and significant incremental revenue for more than 5,550 marketing partners worldwide, including many of the largest and most respected companies in financial services, retail, travel, and Internet commerce. Based in Stamford, Conn., the company has approximately 4,150 employees throughout the United States and in 16 other countries, primarily in Europe, and markets in 16 countries globally. Affinion holds the prestigious ISO 27001 certification for the highest information security practices, is PCI compliant and Cybertrust certified. For more information, visit www.affinion.com.

SOURCE Affinion Group