Specialized Services

First Annapolis offers certain specialized services that span all of our practice areas and client needs. By leveraging specific knowledge that we have institutionalized since our inception, we are well-positioned to offer a depth of expertise in portfolio and risk management, commercial risk and compliance, strategic sourcing, loyalty program services, litigation support, and implementation and operational support and litigation support.

Our approach to portfolio and risk management is based on a strong conviction that driving the desired results requires the right balance of specialized tools, rigorous analysis, practical policies, and sound business strategy. We are a hands-on organization that identifies opportunities, sets priorities, and executes based on the unique needs of each client situation. We add value by bringing a practical, structured focus to each major decision area - prospect marketing, application processing and underwriting, account management, fraud management, collections, and recovery. Most importantly, we field a project team that has proven experience from leading firms such as Fair Isaac, MBNA, GE, American Express, and others.

The complexity of payments-related businesses continues to increase. Organizations must understand and actively manage the multitude of counter-party risks including credit, fraud, compliance, legal and reputation. Our Commercial Risk and Compliance practice leverages our detailed understanding of commercial payments from 15+ years of project experience in the areas of merchant acceptance, credit policy, merchant underwriting, fraud management, and strategy development. Our value-add is specialized expertise - we are in the market, we bring a hands-on approach to projects, and we know best practices related to risk mitigation strategies and techniques. Our Commercial Risk practice includes professionals who joined First Annapolis from public accounting and regulatory environments that bring relevant experience in identifying business risks and designing strategies/systems to mitigate those risks. Our services include risk assessments; credit policy development; specific loan reviews; comprehensive merchant acquiring business risk assessments; Visa ARP (Acquirer Risk Program) reviews; acquisition or divestiture due diligence; and strategy development.

Typically referred to as vendor selection, our Strategic Sourcing practice brings years of experience in advising clients on large-scale sourcing projects. We utilize a disciplined approach, analytical rigor, project management experience, and proven expertise to your benefit. Most importantly, we have years of experience with some of the largest outsourcing decisions in the industry, a detailed understanding of all relevant industry service providers, and a body of knowledge that allows us to add immediate value. Our specialized resources differentiate us from other advisory firms and make First Annapolis a perfect complement to client project teams.

As competition for valuable customer relationships continues to rise, loyalty programs have become table stakes for competing in the card issuing industry. The need for a comprehensive loyalty strategy and effective market positioning has never been greater. We provide assistance to retailers and financial institutions by assessing their loyalty programs and developing and executing a strategy to address any gaps and ensure they have access to the tools required to compete. Our experience and insights in the payments industry prove valuable to organizations in developing strategies to remain competitive in the loyalty sector. Our experience, knowledge base, and structured processes will help position your organization to make informed decisions regarding reward program support and strategies.

Our focus on the entire payments value chain allows us to offer a range of specialized litigation support to industry stakeholders. We leverage our detailed understanding of industry practices and economics to provide expert reports, expert testimony, industry research, damage estimates, and negotiation support to our clients. Our value-add is delivering a commanding knowledge of payments businesses to your litigation support team.

Implementation and Operational Support

Today's dynamic business environment coupled with rapid changes in technology and business processes require an increased level of commitment to ensure the successful implementation and operation of financial systems. We offer years of experience assisting clients with successfully implementing a range of projects from credit card program launches, to multi-year debit and credit portfolio migration and conversion efforts, to business process reviews and optimizations. As an unbiased advisor we provide implementation and operational support that may include extensive day-to-day project management, or we may supplement existing project team resources to provide clients with an external point of view. Our long standing relationships and experience with issuers, associations, processors, and related vendors uniquely qualifies us to provide a fully integrated approach to your implementation and operational support needs. As a supplement to or integrated with our project management support, we offer additional implementation services to include requirements analysis and definition, system design documentation and review, and quality assurance and testing support.