IMGCAP(1)]
Nevada-based independent sales organizations outstrip their competitors across the nation in annual payment card sales volume, according to a recent analysis from First Annapolis Consulting. By taking a ratio between the number of ISOs based in a state and the payment card sales volume generated by those companies, Linthicum, Md.-based First Annapolis found that Nevada had three times the number of ISOs per $1 billion in sales volume. The surprise is that only 6% of the nation's ISOs are based in Nevada, First Annapolis says. "Headquarters location is a not a proxy for sales-channel location or merchant portfolio concentration," wrote Marc Abbey, First Annapolis managing partner, in the analysis. He was not available to say why Nevada is favored as an ISO's headquarter location, such as if the state has favorable corporation laws as Delaware does for large companies. "Most modern ISOs, either due to dispersed sales-agent networks or nationally deployed telesales, have a national or super-regional scope to their sales and marketing organizations," Abbey wrote. First Annapolis did not release the actual tally of ISOs in each state. California, at 19%, had the highest percentage of ISO headquarters, followed by Florida with 9%; Texas, 8%; and New York and Nevada, at 6% each. The remaining 52% of ISOs are based in the other 45 states.
