Metavante Appoints New Health-Payments Chief, Looks for Big Growth

Eyeing an expanding opportunity in debit card processing for health-related accounts, Metavante Corp. has appointed a president for its Healthcare Payments Solutions division. John M. Reynolds, a 20-year veteran in banking and a former executive at Wells Fargo Institutional Trust Service, takes over the unit, which was formed only last fall and includes a number of companies Metavante has acquired in recent years to build up its capability in electronic health-care payments, including Printing for Systems, MBI Benefits Inc, and, most recently, AdminiSource Corp. The Milwaukee-based processor now claims to process transactions on almost 1.5 million benefits-related debit cards for 17,000 employers. These cards are typically tied to flexible-spending accounts (FSAs), health savings accounts (HSAs), and health-reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), all of which have gained popularity as employers and employees seek ways to contain rising health-insurance costs and administrative expenses. Data cited by Metavante point to a rapidly growing opportunity in electronic payments. DiamondCluster, a Chicago-based management-consulting firm, predicts the market will grow to between 15 million and 25 million HSA accounts worth $75 billion in assets by 2010. Meanwhile, some 71% of all FSAs, HSAs, and HRAs will come with debit cards linked to them by 2010, up from 14% today, according to a report from TowerGroup, a Needham, Mass.-based research firm owned by MasterCard International. “The solution set of Metavante Healthcare Payments has gained early traction,” said Frank D'Angelo, president and chief operating officer of Metavante Payment Solutions Group, in a statement. “What lies ahead in marketplace adoption of electronic health-care payments and consumer-directed health care points to a tremendous growth opportunity for us.”