History
Over a decade ago, Source Clearinghouse, Inc. (Source) entered into a long-term contract with MetaBank® (a multi-billion-dollar public bank) to build and operate a registered debit card program that would give unprecedented rewards to debit cardholders, issuers, acquirers and revolutionize the debit card industry.
In March of 2019, Source formed the International Clearinghouse, Inc. (“ICH”) as a leading-edge centralized loyalty processing platform that facilitates a reciprocal partnership business model and provides Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions and reporting services for payment cards, digital commerce, and loyalty reward programs.
After nine months of due diligence and negotiations, MetaBank® invested cash and in-kind assets becoming ICH’s first high-profile marquis investor with a position on its Board of Directors.
In 2020 & 2021, ICH updated and integrated the legacy platform it inherited from Source and developed a cloud-based technology platform. The platform hosts a proprietary Revenue Distribution Engine (RDE) that tracks, matches, calculates, fractionalizes, and distributes a percentage of the merchant revenues it processes to applicable participants along with real time or near time transactional reporting and settlement. In many ways it mirrors the MC/Visa compensation model for merchant acquirers and card issuers.
In 2021, Source formed WeSave, Inc. as a fresh public-facing, multi-vendor online shopping portal.
WeSave then signed a processing license for reciprocal exclusivity with ICH for open-loop loyalty programs and ICH and Source transferred some of their assets and stock to support and add value to WeSave. Going forward, all merchant revenues collected by WeSave are processed through the RDE and a 10% license fee is paid to ICH and Source for their contributions and services.
ICH Platform
a NexGen central processing platform for loyalty rewards programs
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What is ICH?
The ICH refers to a "behind-the-scenes" technology platform that processes loyalty-related consumer transactions for its clients.
Operating similarly to bank card processors such as First Data, the ICH provides loyalty processing and payment services to businesses and merchants and organizations of all kinds that are or want to offer a loyalty reward program to their participants.
As a processor, the ICH is PCI compliant and is operationally subject to OCC guidelines. It incorporates a business-to-business model with no direct relationship with consumers.
ICH Processing Services:
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accept and manage loyalty data from participating member purchase transactions and provides all necessary reports back to the loyalty program operator
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apply the business rules of closed-loop (siloed) loyalty programs for individual businesses
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apply the reciprocal business rules exclusively for WeSave, Inc.'s open-loop loyalty program as they pertain to the registered members and merchants in WeSave's Network
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facilitate the tracking, matching, accounting, management, and distribution of rewards
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will customize (as necessary), reconcile, fractionalize, and disburse all transaction-based rewards in accordance with the applicable business rules of each loyalty program through a proprietary Revenue Distribution Engine™ (“RDE”) to all applicable parties.
Platform Modules
1. Clearinghouse Operating Repository (COR) – Refers to the relational and accounting database which aggregates, processes, reconciles, and manages credits/debits of captured loyalty-related purchase transactions from members and merchants for closed-loop loyalty programs and for participants in the WeSave Network. In other words, it tracks and connects all parties related to a transaction that involves loyalty rewards.
2. The Universal Points Exchange is a technology module being built for future use. It is attached to the ICH platform to manage the exchange/conversion of various rewards. Digital discounts, points, miles, coupons and other reward “currencies” that have not expired from their legacy closed-loop loyalty programs will be able to be filtered through this exchange module and converted to a reward token with a common denominated cash-backed value.
3. SAFE Account Settlement Gateway – The SAFE Account is an omnibus account which stores the cash value of the Secure Points on behalf of the consumer and merchants that hold them. Those dollars are placed into individual digital wallets (sub-accounts) within the main SAFE Account repository. The SAFE Account holds the liquid value of each user’s Secure Points. The value is securely stored for access and use by the Account Owner in accordance with the ICH business rules. The SAFE Account functions like a checkbook by providing secure, credentialled access and control to all participants through digital sub-wallet accounts.
4. Revenue Distribution Engine (RDE) – The RDE connects to the COR which oversees the parties involved in each individual consumer transaction. From the merchant or affinity group that enrolls a consumer in the WeSave Network to the ISO/MSP group that registers and sets up the merchants, the RDE governs the proprietary distribution of revenues. It collects a pre-agreed Coalition Marketing Fee (CMF) from the merchant’s retail profits and distributes them fractionally as a percentage of the whole amount to all applicable participants.
Programs & Services
ICH offers clients many ICH-connected programs and services. All transactions are tracked and stored in the Clearinghouse Operating Repository (COR):
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eCommerce Rewards Platform
