PALO ALTO, Calif. — Bling Nation is providing La Junta, Colo.-based The State Bank with the Bling Nation Community Payments Service, a contactless local debit network for banks and merchants. According to a news release, the bank markets the local payments network as an alternative to traditional payments networks. "The State Bank operates in a competitive market," said Brad Rose, vice president of information technology and security for The State Bank. "In a community of 8,000, there are five banks, including one national branch and two credit unions. As a result, it is important for us to distinguish ourselves by offering our customers lower costs and increased security and convenience in making and accepting payments, while also driving local commerce." The State Bank is offering the Community Payments Service to local merchants and its almost 5,000 customers. Merchants that sign with the Community Payments Service through The State Bank will no longer have to face interchange fees and can offer customizable rewards programs to their customers. "The State Bank has signed more business accounts since May 21 as a result of Redi Pay Bling than in the past two years," Rose said. "The merchants we have enrolled in Redi Pay Bling represent 80 percent of our target in the initial rollout. Through word-of-mouth over less than a month, 5 percent of our customers have activated their BlingTags, and we have planned targeted direct marketing and other marketing initiatives to drastically increase that number."
Bling Nation's core technology is an integrated issuing and acquiring platform designed specifically for local and regional banks. Through its Community Payments Service, Bling Nation enables financial institutions to more profitably support payments between their local demand deposit account customers and their merchant customers by bypassing the current global debit payment model with an efficient, cost-effective and local payment network.
