ISOs

For several years, independent sales organizations have been warned by colleagues in the merchant acquiring business that they had to keep up with payments technology to remain relevant in the payments ecosystem. And judgment day is fast approaching.

As if they needed another reminder that their business models might not have a place in the modern payments landscape, independent sales organizations are left wondering what role — if any — they will have in launching the Apple Card.

NCR has turned to the acquisition market to shore up its defenses against fintech challengers, a further signal that longtime retail industry staples such as payment hardware and ISOs are going by the wayside as dedicated business models.

Worldnet is adding Google Pay to its cloud-hosted platform to address the pressure on payment service providers and independent sales organizations to securely embrace multiple payment channels and computing devices.

Terminal provider paycosmos has launched its "ISO in a Box" payment platform, saying the software provides everything an independent sales organization needs to support agents and acquire merchant contracts.

International e-commerce is booming these days and so too are the opportunities—and challenges—for payments players.

One way for acquirers and independent sales organizations to stand out in a highly competitive field is to devote a part of their business to worthy causes.

In a post-Equifax world, independent sales organizations, acquirers and payment processors are under much more scrutiny over merchant account applications and underwriting.

The acquirer OLB Group is positioning itself as a data steward for a future in which merchants will have predictive data to inform decisions on financing.

In India, tens of millions of merchants still operate largely in cash with a mostly unbanked rural population. Technology could solve their problems, but the bigger differentiator may be in how payment services are sold.