Economy

Sales agents for ISOs increasingly are seeking additional industry training to improve their abilities to better compete for scarce business during the difficult economy, observers note.

Attendees of the ATM Industry Association show in Miami last week crowded around an ATM some believe could revitalize ISOs that sell ATMs and are suffering from shrinking margins and a lack of new ideas to generate revenue.

A sales agent presents a proposition to move a portfolio of merchants from one ISO to another. While it sounds like a good deal for the ISO that receives the portfolio, it might not be. The ISO that accepts the merchant portfolio could be sued, even if it has not signed a written contract agreeing not to move the merchants in question.

Merchants always are interested in the cost of payment card processing, but sales agents should evaluate the importance of price when listening to merchants about their needs, observers say.

Processors, not ISOs, likely will handle many provisions of a law that takes effect next January requiring acquirers to report merchant credit and debit card transactions to the Internal Revenue Service, says Henry Helgeson, co-CEO of Merchant Warehouse Inc., a Boston-based ISO.

News last week that North American Bancard has hired a financial advisor to help sort out its future and that Merchant Data Systems Inc. has purchased a 1,300-merchant ISO potentially is signalling a resurgence in mergersand acquisitions among portfolio buyers and sellers. It also signals further consolidation in the ISO and merchant-acquiring industry.

Automated clearinghouse transaction processor ACH Federal LLC is introducing a merchant-referral partner program for ISOs in the hopes of expanding its client base, according to the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based company.

From the January/February 2010 issue of ISO&Agent.

From the January/February 2010 issue of ISO&Agent.

From the January/February 2010 issue of ISO&Agent.

From the January/February 2010 issue of ISO&Agent.

From the January/February 2010 issue of ISO&Agent.

JetPay LLC, a Carrollton, Texas-based payment processor, says it has won a trademark-infringement issue involving its Web site address, www.jetpay.com.

Newtek Business Services Inc., a New York-based payments company, says it has refinanced a $15 million line of credit with Capital One N.A.

VeriFone Holdings Inc.’s Payware Mobile payment software for Apple Inc.’s iPhone is available from Apple’s iTunes store, the San Jose, Calif.-based terminal maker says.

The world’s largest payment-terminal manufacturers expect to see a modest uptick in demand this year after a lengthy, recession-driven sales slump. France-based Ingenico, along with U.S.-based VeriFone Holdings Inc. and Hypercom Corp., all are cautiously optimistic about this year’s sales outlook, partly because of new data-security mandates that will require certain merchants to replace existing terminals.