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American Express Incentive Services Introduces Merchant Management Services to its Patent Licensing Program

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 2, 2006 – American Express Incentive Services (AEIS), a business-to-business prepaid card industry leader, has announced that it will offer Merchant Management services to its patent license partners. The service allows AEIS' license partners, who license the rights to use AEIS' patented DirectSpendSM process, to tap into AEIS' established set of merchant partners to build custom prepaid cards as well as realize a new revenue stream through card redemption commissions.

 

DirectSpend allows the creation of "focused-use" debit and credit cards, reaching beyond typical universal prepaid cards to offer the power to direct where a card is spent and create a memorable, customized experience for cardholders.

 

The Merchant Management services enable license partners to bypass the time-consuming process of building relationships with merchants in order to feature them as spending options on card products. Through AEIS' services, license partners can create proprietary custom cards immediately by accessing AEIS' more than 200 U.S. and Canadian merchants in a variety of enticing categories such as electronics, apparel, jewelry, gift, home and garden, sporting goods and department stores.

 

These services also offer the advantage of administration assistance. AEIS capabilities include merchant acquisitions, management and promotions.

 

"Our Merchant Management services are a great way for new license partners to access the advantages of the DirectSpend right away to increase their product offerings," said Darryl Hutson, AEIS CEO. "We've worked hard to build relationships with quality merchants such as Gap, Macy's, Marriott and The Sharper Image®, so all a licensee needs to do is create custom card concepts, and we help make them happen." AEIS announced earlier this year the expansion of its licensing program for its patented filtering process (U.S. Patents No. 5,689,100 and 5,956,695). Current licensees include ITA Group and eFunds Prepaid Solutions.

 

AEIS expanded its licensing program to help meet the growing demand for focused-use cards. These types of cards are popular for employee incentives and consumer promotions as well as funding vehicles for health care benefits, payroll, expense management and individuals who do not have bank accounts.

 

Companies that want to sell focused-use cards without becoming licensees may do so by reselling AEIS' cards. For more information on AEIS' patent licensing program and Merchant Management services, please call (888) 453-0150.

 

AEIS, a joint venture between American Express Travel Related Services Company Inc. and Maritz Inc., provides business-to-business reward solutions including prepaid cards, American Express® Gift Cheques and a Web-based reward management tool. Its products address a broad array of applications such as employee reward and recognition, sales incentives and consumer promotions while helping clients drive consumer and employee behaviors, build loyalty and increase brand awareness. AEIS is an affiliate of American Express and is headquartered in Fenton, Mo. For more information, please contact prmanager@aeis.com.