From the time it launched in 2008, Acculynk Inc. has maintained its PaySecure product is secure despite detractors. The company today received some more validation, as a payments processor that fell victim to a high-profile security breach in late 2008 plans to support Acculynk’s Internet PIN-debit transactions.
Heartland Payment Systems Inc. has entered into an agreement with Acculynk to offer PaySecure to its online merchants. The payment option will be available to Heartland’s existing and prospective merchants by the end of June.
A Heartland executive was not immediately available for comment.
Acculynk’s latest pact comes just two weeks after it announced its most significant partnership with First Data Corp. (
Acculynk has used a deliberate and calculated approach when dealing with potential merchant-acquirer partnerships. Heartland mostly is known as a processor, but it offers merchants a variety of payments services.
“Instead of just signing random acquirers, we’ve been working on [the] Heartland [agreement] for the past six months,” Ashish Bahl, Acculynk CEO, tells PaymentsSource. Heartland during that time collected a backlog of merchants interested in adding PaySecure, Bahl says.
Heartland in January 2009 reported that hackers a few months earlier had breached its processing network, capturing credit and debit card numbers and expiration dates (
The Heartland deal is similar to Acculynk’s partnership with Dallas-based merchant services provider JetPay LLC, Bahl says. JetPay also is processor.
Processor agreements “certainly are an important part of this puzzle for anyone that’s going to be in the business,” Paul Turgeon, president of Payments & Processing Consultants Inc., tells PaymentsSource. “They are certainly gaining momentum in that regard.”
Turgeon believes Acculynk stands to gain more support from issuers pending the outcome of the Federal Reserve Board’s proposed 12-cent cap on debit card interchange because PaySecure is based on PIN-debit transactions, which generally are more secure than signature-debit purchases. Issuers likely would become more concerned about fraud as a lower interchange rate cuts into margins, he says.
“No disrespect to the brand companies, but I believe the brand companies and issuers are not honest about the amount of fraud that occurs in e-commerce and mobile-commerce transactions,” Turgeon says. “The transactions have historically been rich enough that they really haven’t had to care much.”
The Fed is required by April to finalize a rule setting “reasonal and proportional” debit card interchange rate. But a delay in its proposed rule’s implementation is possible (
Meantime, Acculynk has experienced a 50% conversion rate when consumers are asked to enter a PIN upon checkout, Bahl claims. He considers that figure encouraging despite the company’s tight budget that prevents it from marketing PaySecure to consumers.
“The reason [the conversion rate] has held is because [PaySecure] continues to mimic the POS experience,” Bahl says.
Based on the e-commerce figures, Acculynk is eagerly anticipating its mobile rollout, Bahl says.
Acculynk in January announced PaySecure Mobile, which merchants would integrate into a mobile application’s checkout process as a payment option. Consumers possessing an eligible debit card then may enter their PIN on a virtual, scrambling PIN pad to complete a transaction. The process is similar to how consumers initiate PaySecure transactions online with personal computers (
Nine electronic funds transfer networks support PaySecure, including Accel/Exchange, Alaska Option, Credit Union 24, Jeanie, MasterCard Worldwide’s Maestro, NetWorks Inc., NYCE, Pulse and Shazam. Acculynk has said it is working on a deal with a 10th, undisclosed network. Noticeably absent from the list are First Data’s Star and Visa Inc.’s Interlink, the two largest U.S. networks that support PIN-debit purchases.
