IMPLEMENTATION As you know, by entering into the contract with the consumer and issuing the line of credit to them we, Starlite Bank are referred to as “Issuing Bank.” Since we will do our own underwriting we will not need any “Acquiring banks” as part of this venture. The area we will need to look into is credit card issuing. We have two options: Issue the credit cards ourselves: hiring large amounts of personnel, buy necessary equipment and supplies, train employees, build the IT infrastructure to issue credit cards. Use a third party vendor to issue our credit cards. That vendor would already have the entire infrastructure and merchant relationships to create our credit cards and send them out to our customers. The second option listed offers the opportunity to roll out this profitable new service more quickly and with less upfront cost. Town North Bank (TNB) offers services as listed above. “We do it all from managing your program, risk management, card issuing, operational support, customer service, and marketing programs to growing your member relationships” (TNBcard.com, 2008). In addition to offering all the services we need to launch this credit card venture, TNB also offers customer support: Toll-free, 24 x 7 customer service As a value added service to our customers, TNB will take customer calls to answer questions pertaining to card activity through a toll free number available 24/7. This number will also be where customers could report lost/stolen cards and inquire about any aspect of their card. The only limitation is that TNB could not process requests for increases in card limits or new card requests. eZ-Pay, convenient card payments over the telephone Through the same toll free number, customers can make payments and make all inquiries into card activity and availability. Falcon™ Fraud Detection tool This service monitors charges on customers’ cards