IMGCAP(1)]
Multicurrency payment processing is an additional revenue stream for independent sales organizations that can increase client retention rates, observers generally agree. Typically, multicurrency-processing services allow merchants to accept and process card transactions in multiple currencies. "The proposition to the ISO [in reselling multicurrency services] is that it represents a new revenue stream," says David Fish, senior analyst at Mercator Advisory Group, a Maynard, Mass.-based consulting firm. The total revenue opportunity for multicurrency products "is usually 2% to 4% of the purchase amount," says Mike McCormack, president of Palma Advisors LLC, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based consulting firm. The amount is split among the parties involved, such as the processor, merchant and ISO, he says. Another benefit for ISOs is lower merchant attrition rates, says Xavier Ayala, vice president and director of national sales and marketing at Humboldt Merchant Services, a Eureka, Calif.-based merchant-service provider. "In the United States, there is a select number of processor banks" that offer multicurrency services, Ayala says. It is more difficult for merchants to shop around among competing multicurrency companies because of the limited number of providers. ISOs that offer multicurrency services "can create a merchant situation with more stickiness," agrees Fish.
