ACH Federal LLC, an automated clearinghouse transaction processor, will refer merchants wanting credit and debit card transaction-processing services to PDX Enterprise Solutions, a Portland, Ore.-based independent sales organization, ACH Federal announced July 28.
ACH Federal announced a referral program earlier this year that enables ISOs to share revenue generated by their referred merchants that sign up with the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based processor for ACH-processing services (
The PDX Enterprise deal, however, has ACH Federal referring merchants to the ISO as well as PDX referring merchants to ACH Federal.
“Anytime their clients or leads ask about merchant services, they will refer that lead to us,” Michael Hass, PDX president and CEO, tells PaymentsSource. Nonprofit organizations are some of the first ACH Federal merchants to get a PDX merchant account, Hass says.
Hass declined to share details of the revenue-sharing arrangement between PDX and ACH Federal.
Typically, ISOs value referral agreements because they can lower the cost of acquiring a merchant. Also, the potential merchant already has a trusted relationship with the referring company, so the ISO eliminates a potential cold call.
The deal between ACH Federal and PDX was the result of a referral, ACH Federal says.
“PDX was seeking an ACH partner for a high-profile account. They were referred to us via a very trusted source,” an ACH Federal spokesperson says. “As the demand began to grow for a unified payments platform for both ACH and merchant services, we solicited PDX to become our partner.”
ACH Federal anticipates approximately 25% of its 2,000 corporate and 39 financial-institution accounts will need a merchant account. “More importantly, the relationship with PDX opens more doors to online and recurring billers,” the ACH Federal spokesperson says.
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