Innovative Mobile Solutions for Credit Card Holders

Citi Cards, a major worldwide provider of financial services, and Firethorn Holdings, a leader in developing and delivering advanced digital wireless communications products and services, have revealed an important strategic partnership. It will enable Citi credit card holders to get a secure and convenient access to real-time account information on their wireless handsets. The innovative service is expected to be available for U.S. Citi credit card holders in several months.

The strategic partnership will open a new page of Citi's history of offering valuable and comprehensive solutions for their customers. Citi credit card holders will be able to use a pre-loaded and fully supported Firethorn application anytime and anywhere they want. Moreover, the innovative solution will promote the new progressive mobile services for card holders and favor the development of the mobile commerce market.

Citi has about 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing a wide range of financial products and services, including consumer banking, corporate banking, and wealth management. They issue credit cards for students, businesses and consumers. The company constantly broadens the range of perks and benefits they offer to their customers. The new solution will enable the credit card holders to have access to their credit account information, including the amount of current debt, available funds, recent transactions, information about the amount of earned points or cash back, and much more. The innovation is aimed to help Citi credit card holders manage their accounts in an easy and safe way.

Citi Cards are one of the first financial institutions which offer this valuable and convenient service to their customers. And it is not surprising. The company has always offered advanced solutions based on new comprehensive technology. For example, they have become a recognized leader in mobile phone-based consumer financial services. The new service will help the company to attract new clients and correspondingly to increase their profits.

The second company, Firethorn is the preferred mobile commerce enabler of the nation's major mobile network operators. It is focused on building the mobile banking and payments ecosystem -- the Firethorn Network. The partnership with Citi Cards will enable Firethorn to gain the great advantages. Preloaded, preferred placement of their brand on the wireless handset will enhance brand equity. The unique marketing expertise will help develop new options, make customer support better and lower operational and servicing costs.

Nowadays credit card holders tend to use mobile payments more and more. Being the mobile commerce subsidiary of leading wireless technology leader Qualcomm, Firethorn is able to use Qualcomm's wireless technology innovations and its global development expertise to create and deliver new opportunities for credit card holders. That will help the company generate revenue and improve customer acquisition and retention.