Marc Abbey

Only federally insured depository institutions can be members of Visa USA and MasterCard Worldwide, yet some of the most dynamic and creative issuers are nonbanks. Some of these nonbank players effectively rent the bank identification number charters of commercial banks.

Scale alone won't make a merchant acquirer successful. But some national accounts combined with a well-managed, properly segmented merchant portfolio can produce windfalls even for mid-tier acquirers.