Viewpointe Archive Services LLC said Monday that it has agreed to buy the assets of PaymentsNation as part of its effort to provide both clearing and settlement services to its financial company owners and customers.
Viewpointe, which operates a massive shared-check archive, has long offered clearing services to its users, but PaymentsNation handles the settlement. The companies said the deal is expected to close "in the near future" but did not specify the price.
"The transaction with PaymentsNation is a logical step for Viewpointe, enabling convergence of clearing and settlement functions that are essential to the payments process for institutions of all sizes," Lou Buglioli, Viewpointe's chief executive, said in a press release.
PaymentsNation, a Dallas firm, was created in April 2007 when the National Clearing House Association, Viewpointe's longtime settlement partner, merged with Payments Resource One. PaymentsNation is also a voting member of Nacha, the electronic payments association.
Eleven major banks store their check images in Viewpointe's archive, and the New York company has said that about 70% of the country's check-image volume is held there.
Some of these banks also clear payments through the archive, using an image-sharing model; Viewpointe also offers an image-exchange service, Pointe2Pointe, aimed at banks that want to clear payments electronically but do not use the company's archive to store their images.
