GVGroup principals and associates have driven innovation and profit at some of the largest, most competitive, most respected organizations in the world:
You can trust GVGroup to deliver profitable payment innovations at your organization.
Though it is not a comprehensive list, the selected projects summarized below span a wide range of business challenges and disciplines, often employing resources from all of our practice areas. We have grouped these project summaries into five categories:
Marketing, Segmentation & Efficiency |
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Improved an issuer's portfolio profitability by 7% to 10% |
Challenge: Help a major card issuer to reduce the number of inactive accounts in its portfolio to boost revenue and reduce unnecessary operating and funding expense.
GVGroup associates developed activation models that targeted some segments with incentive programs while culling out other low-potential segments. Through testing, monitoring and validation, the models were able to conserve scarce marketing funds while achieving a 7% to 10% performance increase and significantly growing the active customer base. |
Improved issuer response rates and profitability |
Challenge: Improve response rates on card usage marketing, and better balance retention and revolving activity at a top international credit card issuer.
GVGroup designed and tested probability response models and cluster analysis across various customer datasets. This allowed GVGroup to recommend a more effective segmentation of the customer base and better targeting of marketing efforts. This resulted in significant cost savings, higher response rates, and improved overall customer profitability. |
Produced a winning retail co-brand program |
Challenge: Help a credit card issuer win a co-branded partnership with a regional retailer by developing a program that would be compelling to existing and prospective customers, as well as the retailer’s sales associates.
GVGroup associates conducted consumer market research, developed business cases and utilized additional quantitative and qualitative research to test a variety of promotional programs. As a result, the client won the partnership deal and successfully introduced the co-branded program, which featured a highly differentiated rewards structure.
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Recommended merchant acquiring programs that increased sales volume |
Challenge: Work with a major transaction acquirer to differentiate its service offerings for its merchant client base by improving the value of those services.
GVGroup associates, utilizing a deep database of consumer information available through the client’s affiliate, recommended several services to help the acquirer improve its value-add to merchants while also maintaining consumer privacy. The recommended programs increased sales volume at client merchants through targeted promotions, stimulated purchases among “marginal” customers, and developed business from high-potential prospect groups. |
Prepaid Products |
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Expanded distribution channels for prepaid cards at a major card payment group |
Challenge: Develop new distribution channels and enhance existing channels to sell “open-loop” prepaid cards.
GVGroup associates designed and implemented a trusted, scalable service network for card loading, allowing prepaid card issuers to expand issuance and loading value through multiple point-of-sale locations and channels. The service enhances existing distribution relationships, supports the creation of new merchant partnerships (including co-branded and loyalty programs), and allows expansion to new customer segments such as the un-banked and under-served.
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Rigorously evaluated EU prepaid market opportunity and strategy for a top 3 US-based issuer |
Challenge: Systematically assess prepaid card opportunities in EU to quantify market size and recommend go-to-market strategy.
GVGroup determined the potential for payroll, money transfer, and general purpose prepaid cards in major EU markets. GVGroup associates also identified and assessed third-party processors for potential partnership, joint venture and acquisition opportunities. As a result, the client has moved aggressively to leverage their international branch operations to issue prepaid card products within in the EU market and globally.
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Business & Corporate Payments |
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Developed strategy, business case and implemented a program for global commercial card issuance to support MNCs |
Challenge: Develop a strategy and help implement a business plan addressing the market opportunity and operational requirements for a major U.S.-based issuer to compete globally against other single issuer models for commercial products targeted to MNCs.
GVGroup designed and validated a five-year business strategy and operating plan, with a detailed financial pro forma, to achieve the objective of single card issuance of commercial card products to existing and new U.S.-based multinational corporate clients of the bank. The financial plan included numerous quantitative data elements and associated assumptions for volumes, revenue streams, ongoing expenses and capital/resource requirements, while the business plan included a detailed business case, IT and operational support requirements and an implementation roadmap for the issuer. Validation of the plan included on-site assessments of the client's existing EU-based processing, operational and technical capabilities to support the direct issuance of commercial card products across Europe. Developed an RFP and coordinated the process for the card brand and IT support decisions for international issuance. Upon the successful completion and approval of the business case and strategy by bank executives, GVGroup was engaged to manage the rollout and implementation of the program, which was successfully completed on budget and on time. |
Credit Risk & Collections |
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Reduced charge-offs by 40% and optimized account profitability at a major credit card issuer |
Challenge: Increase account balances and revenue while limiting potential credit losses.
GVGroup associates examined historical account performance and designed a modeling approach to segment accounts and apply decision criteria to optimize account profitability. The resulting programs achieved 40% lower charge-offs while boosting account balances and associated revenues from transaction fees and interest income.
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Produced rigorous cost-benefit analysis of credit reporting |
Challenge: Develop objective, quantifiable data for creditors on the costs and benefits of participating in credit reporting systems.
GVGroup associates researched and published a report on the impacts of sharing credit data and customer information in a formalized reporting system. The study documented the positive impact on creditor profitability from sharing certain elements of customer credit information, and it concluded that the positive effects could greatly offset the negative effects of releasing such information to competitors. Furthermore, the report identified how the emergence of positive credit bureau reporting in many countries, especially in the Asia Pacific region, could further bolster the ability of larger and smaller credit grantors to reduce credit risk and boost profitability via risk-based pricing programs.
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Identified $35mn in cost savings by reducing international settlement risk in credit card payment transactions |
Challenge: Survey, analyze and recommend alternatives to mitigate international settlement risk, particularly for credit card payment transactions.
GVGroup built a multi-dimensional evaluation tool to help the client better understand the relative risk mitigation effectiveness, cost, and other considerations of implementing a range of alternative options, including insurance, settlement schemes, collateral, and other techniques. The recommended approach included potential cost savings from the existing system in excess of $35mn without incurring any additional risk to the system.
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Optimized payment processing at a top 5 global retailer |
Challenge: Enhance customer loyalty and payment experience and the point-of-sale, while controlling rising payment processing costs.
GVGroup recommended developing a merchant-centric payment solution utilizing ACH (bank clearinghouse) transaction processing and check electronification. The solution complements existing point-of-sale technologies and meets the business, security and operational needs of partner merchants, customers and other stakeholders. The new processing service is expected to result in annual cost savings of $12mn to $15mn
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Also see the summary of our retail co-branding project in the marketing and segmentation section. |
