By ALLISSA KLINE
akline@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1612

The parent of Citizens Bank is offering a new expense-management tool for commercial credit card customers to allow business owners to set spending controls on employee-issued cards.

The accessCARD Command is available at no charge to commercial customers with annual revenues under $25 million, according to Citizens Financial Group. In addition to spending limits, it allows business owners to keep track in real time of purchases made or attempted by their employees.

Citizens Bank is the fifth-largest bank in Western New York, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data. In June 2010, it held 3.9 percent of the region's deposit share, with $1.4 billion in deposits, the FDIC said.

The accessCARD command is the first product of its type available in the United States, according to Citizens. It is part of the bank's "access"-branded products, which includes accessMOBILE, a mobile-banking product released by Citizens last fall.