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Century Payments Inc. will oversee the sales efforts of some 350 banks that refer prospective merchants to processor RBS WorldPay, Century announced Wednesday. Many banks establish an "agent bank" affiliation with a processor or independent sales organization so they can offer their merchant customers payment-processing services without hiring their own salespeople. Rob Wechsler, Century CEO, tells CardLine sister publication ISO&Agent Weekly the deal, which was completed last week, expands the number of agent banks his ISO works with from a "few dozen" to more than 350. "This gives us tremendous scale very quickly," Wechsler says. Besides credit and debit card processing, Century also provide check services, gift and loyalty programs, and merchant cash-advance services. Century can tailor its products to run as "white label" programs that carry the bank's logo and appear to be a bank product, Wechsler says. Century directs merchant inquiries from the agent banks to its 300-person sales staff. "One thing that helps drive salespeople's compensation is the ability to get more referrals," Wechsler says. RBS WorldPay will process transactions made by these merchant accounts, Wechsler says.
