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The concept of a registration program for merchant level salespeople is not a new one, but a recent survey found that the majority of respondents favor such a scheme. Initiated this spring by the ISO Coalition on LinkedIn.com, a social networking Web site, the survey found that 68% of 126 respondents to the question agreed that registration would help the industry regulate itself. The remainder, 32%, said such a scheme would not help. The survey also found that many respondents favored establishing a new organization to maintain the registry. Thirty-nine percent preferred a new organization, with 29% selecting card brands Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide as the overseers. Visa and MasterCard already separately maintain registered ISO lists, but they do not extend to the sales-agent level of an ISO. The Electronic Transactions Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group, was chosen by 18%. Fourteen percent selected "other."
