MasterCard Inc. has added to its customer roster for inControl, a technology that lets users set spending limits and other restrictions on their cards.
The Purchase, N.Y., payments network said Thursday that Bank of the West, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas SA, will offer a version of the service, called MasterCard Purchase Control, to the bank's corporate purchasing card customers starting early next year.
"As Bank of the West continues to engage larger corporate clients with complex purchasing programs, the need to eliminate inefficiencies and provide greater control and insight into purchasing card spend became more evident," Dominique Fracchia, the senior vice president of commercial cards for the San Francisco bank, said in a press release.
With Purchase Control, managers can set spending limits for employees and simplify transaction reconciliation with virtual account numbers.
The service gives a bank's commercial clients "total control and monitoring of when, where and how cards are used," said Michael Fiore, the senior vice president and group head of emerging payments at MasterCard.
Bank of the West also plans to offer enhanced data to give clients more details about how corporate cards are used.
MasterCard in August announced Citigroup Inc. would be the first banking company to offer inControl to its U.S. consumer customers. The company has several other large banks planning to offer the service to cardholders, Garry Lyons, the group executive of research and development, said at the company's recent media day.
Orbiscom Ltd., a Dublin company that MasterCard acquired in 2008, developed the product.
