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Decoupled-debit provider National Payment Card LLC has changed its name to National Payment Card Association following an injection of outside capital, the company announced this week. Joe Randazza, National Payment Card president and CEO, tells CardLine that venture-capital firm KPG Ventures LLC invested an undisclosed amount in the company. Randazza said the Coconut Creek, Fla.-based company changed its corporate structure from a limited liability corporation registered in Florida to a Delaware-registered company. Consumers can enroll for the company's decoupled debit service at participating National Payment Card merchants by linking the magnetic stripe data on their driver's licenses to their checking accounts through a Internet site, by telephone or by mailing information from a cancelled check to National Payment Card. Participants then swipe their driver's license, or a merchant-supplied card, through a point-of-sale terminal to pay for merchandise. The transaction is settled over the automated clearinghouse system, which is less expensive for merchants to use than credit or debit card networks. Randazza says the company previously was self-funded. "The reason we went to KPG Ventures was because we wanted to give major retailers a comfort zone of sustainability," Randazza says. Dave Hill, KPG Ventures general partner, tells CardLine National Payment Card has a service that has a definable group of customers that includes merchants looking for lower-cost alternatives to traditional credit and debit card payments. It considers its service expandable, and the product is operational. All three elements are necessary for KPG Ventures to invest, Hill says.
