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SELECTING A NEW ISSUING AND ACQUIRING PROCESSOR: WHAT’S ON YOUR SHOPPING LIST? Selecting a new payments processor is a complex task, made more so by the fact that, on the surface, the majority of processors in the market today appear to cover all the bases, with very little between them other than branding and price. We can all acknowledge that the processor a financial institution (FI) decides to partner with will be instrumental to the success of its payments business, so what should be on their shopping list when looking to determine if a processor is the right fit? A successful processing relationship should have all the ingredients in place to go the distance. Making the wrong choice can be both very expensive and time consuming to extricate and migrate away from, and FIs don’t want to find themselves lockedin to unrewarding partnerships that are detrimental to their long-term success. This comprehensive processing shopping list has been put together based on extensive first-hand experience of working as a processor, working as a technology provider for processors, and years of payments industry expertise, to ensure that whomever an FI selects, they will be able to support their vision, enable their strategy and facilitate their businesses growth both for the here and now, and well into the future.
#1 Breadth of service There are numerous reasons for scoping payments processors in the market; from starting up a new payments enterprise, migrating part or all of the business to one of a number of outsourcing models, or just moving away from a partner that is no longer a viable strategic fit. Something to consider, regardless of where an FI sits in their business evolution, is the strategy for growth over the next two to ten years. Whilst it is important to partner with a processor that meets an FI’s imminent requirements, those that drove them to start shopping around in the first place, the strategic fit needs to reach beyond the immediate to ensure one set of bottlenecks isn’t being replaced by another. For example, short-term, a card issuer may seek a processor that can help it expand its product portfolio by introducing new card schemes into the mix, mid-term it may want to introduce new payment methods such as x-Pays, but in the long-term, it may plan to expand geographically into new territories. An e-commerce acquiring business may have the initial requirement to move away
from its current pricing model or longdevelopment queues, but in the future, has plans to expand to POS acquiring in order to add physical merchants to its repertoire. By selecting a universal processor with the experience, capability and flexibility to enable growth, an FI is already paving the way to facilitate and future-proof its success.
#2 Time-to-market Competition is rife in today’s payments space and time is of the essence to launch new products and services in order to retain and grow market share. Every processor can issue a new card product, or set up a new merchant. However, the effort and time this takes can vary massively from processor to processor depending on a wide variety of factors, from the agility of the underlying technology and the service delivery models on offer, down to the resources available and where an FI will sit in terms of priority in the development queue. When selecting a processor, an FI should choose one that reduces time-to-market for new products and services. It must not compromise its vision by making a choice Back to the Table of Contents