Bank of the West to Provide MasterCard Purchase Control to Corporate Customers

Powered by MasterCard inControl™, Bank of the West Commercial Customers can now Actively Manage Corporate Card Spending

PURCHASE, NY and SAN FRANCISCO, CA, - Bank of the West and MasterCard Worldwide today announced that Bank of the West will offer its commercial customers greater purchasing card program flexibility, security and control with MasterCard Purchase Control. Powered by the innovative MasterCard inControl™ platform, Purchase Control offers corporations a suite of services to help increase corporate payment card transaction security and program efficiencies, while enabling greater overall budget control. Purchase Control will be available to Bank of the West’s corporate purchasing card clients in early 2011.

“As Bank of the West continues to engage larger corporate clients with complex purchasing card programs, the need to eliminate inefficiencies and provide greater control and insight into purchasing card spend became more evident,” said Dominique Fracchia, senior vice president of Commercial Card for Bank of the West. “Implementing MasterCard inControl helps our bank better meet the needs of our corporate customers, including those of our parent BNP Paribas.”

Bank of the West corporate clients will enjoy improved oversight of their purchasing card programs via enhanced spending controls and authorizations, plus increased transaction security with MasterCard Purchase Control. These features will enable greater efficiencies in managing and tracking corporate and employee purchasing card spending, as well as help reduce the risk of fraudulent card usage and ensure compliance with corporate policies. MasterCard Purchase Control also lets companies simplify reconciliation and increase operational efficiencies by integrating seamlessly into existing corporate financial infrastructure.

“MasterCard Puchase Control is an innovative service that gives corporate customers the peace of mind to gain greater financial control over spending,” said Michael Fiore, senior vice president & group head, Emerging Payments, MasterCard Worldwide. "The suite of services we offer through MasterCard inControl enables our customers to empower their cardholders, including corporate clients, with total control and monitoring of when, where and how cards are used.”

Specifically, MasterCard Purchase Control provides corporations with the ability to:

* Set authorization controls that enable managers to define specific spending parameters for their employees while allowing flexibility for emergencies;
* Establish pre-purchase compliance with corporate spending policies at the front-end in combination with optimized MIS reporting on the back-end;
* Gain efficiencies by simplifying the reconciliation process through the use of Virtual Numbers and Limited Use Numbers to uniquely identify each transaction.


To further meet the needs of existing and potential corporate card clients, Bank of the West will also offer enhanced folio data to provide clients with greater insight into corporate card spend. With the selection of Purchase Control, Bank of the West also extends its commercial brand agreement with MasterCard to 2013.

About MasterCard inControl
MasterCard inControl is an innovative, flexible service which enables issuers to easily introduce payment products that offer unparalleled controls and real-time alerts to both consumer and commercial cardholders. The suite of inControl offerings satisfies strong end-user needs for security and controlled access to spending accounts, while providing cost-efficiencies and speed-to-market for issuers and no need for any changes in the payment process at the merchant. MasterCard inControl builds on MasterCard’s unparalleled global processing platform.

About Bank of the West
Based in San Francisco, $61 billion-asset Bank of the West (www.bankofthewest.com) offers a full range of business, corporate, personal, trust and international banking services. The Bank operates more than 700 branch locations and commercial banking offices in 19 Western and Midwestern states. Bank of the West’s holding company, BancWest Corporation, is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, among the six strongest banks in the world according to Standard & Poor’s.

About MasterCard Worldwide

As a leading global payments company, MasterCard Worldwide prides itself on being at the heart of commerce, helping to make life easier and more efficient for everyone, everywhere. MasterCard serves as a franchisor, processor and advisor to the payments industry, and makes commerce happen by providing a critical economic link among financial institutions, governments, businesses, merchants, and cardholders worldwide. In 2009, $2.5 trillion in gross dollar volume was generated on its products by consumers around the world. Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network — the fastest payment processing network in the world — MasterCard processes over 22 billion transactions each year, has the capacity to handle 140 million transactions per hour, with an average network response time of 140 milliseconds and with 99.99 percent reliability. MasterCard advances global commerce through its family of brands, including MasterCard®, Maestro®, and Cirrus®; its suite of core products such as credit, debit, and prepaid; and its innovative platforms and functionalities, such as MasterCard PayPas™ and MasterCard inControl™. MasterCard serves consumers, governments, and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. For more information, please visit us at www.mastercard.com. Follow us on Twitter: @mastercardnews.