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The economics of making money may not have changed fundamentally in the last few months, but when an architect of the U.S. economy, Alan Greenspan, says he made a mistake "in presuming that the self- interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms," something different is going on.
Despite overarching economic changes of altered lending practices and increased analysis of risk, ISOs and agents still have to sell merchant accounts and related services. This issue of ISO&Agent magazine examines new market opportunities.
Our lead article analyzes the prospect of finding merchants that do not already accept credit or debit cards and why some ISOs choose only to pursue merchants with card processing experience.
Of course, agents long ago stopped selling just processing services.
Merchant cash advances are part of that stable of products. In this issue we look at how the maturing cash-advance industry may affect ISOs and their agents and offer insightful advice on taking advantage of a merchant's entire payment base.
Hardware once drove the revenue- generation machines for agents. As new devices, such as contactless readers and mobile payment terminals come to market, agents are advised to take a studied approach to selling them, ISO&Agent finds in another article this month.
Case in point, issuers have issued millions of contactless-enabled credit and debit cards, but little is known about how much consumers spend with them and how many transactions are made with the chip cards in the United States.
Whether consumers are crying out for the cards or issuers believe consumers should be crying out for them is a fine point that ISOs will ignore until a consistent revenue stream for contactless payments surfaces.
Checks long have been a revenue stream for merchants, and ISOs quickly are finding ways to capture some of that money. In our third article this month, ISO&Agent explores the various ways agents can convert paper checks into a residual stream.
The advent of check imaging earlier this decade opened up the possibility for merchants to use remote-deposit capture to securely move this centuries-old form of payment to a bank without actually going to the bank. This digitizing means ISOs can sell services and hardware to help merchants do this.
Rounding out this issue are some thoughts from Matt Clyne on weathering challenges. In his column, Clyne writes about the benefits of specializing, especially if the ISO can find a niche that is better buttressed than others to withstand an economic slowdown. Here's to putting these tips into practice and enjoying the benefits of that hard work.
