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CoverStory
Passport to Europe their U.S. counterparts, which has translated into high
activation rates among that user segment.
When international acquirer Elavon Inc., a wholly owned
subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, opened a contact center in For Santa Ana, Calif.-based Meritus Payment Solutions,
Warsaw, Poland, one of three such facilities it operates taking a pragmatic approach to establishing a presence
in Europe, customer experience was priority one. That's in Europe was critical. After launching multicurrency
because in the European Union, where the European processing as a service, Meritus then sought a European
Commission has officially recognized 24 languages, poor partner to facilitate international expansion for its mostly
communication due to language barriers can quickly U.S.-based, card-not-present e-commerce clients.
escalate into disgruntled customers.
Criteria for the search included companies with similar
To illustrate Elavon's level of commitment to customer technical capabilities, credit policies, organizational size
service at this facility, payments industry consultant Linda and target markets. "Some acquirers we met with had
Perry recalled that during a guided tour she encountered very limited systems and reporting, which is important to
college-educated customer service representatives each of us because many times we take liability when we process,
whom was fluent in three to four languages, so all local and we want to provide reporting comparable to what we
languages in Europe were represented. do in the U.S. to make sure our customers' experience is
seamless," said Alan Kleinman, Chief Executive Officer
"The phone would route callers to whoever was a local at Meritus.
speaker, so people would feel comfortable," Perry said.
"They knew if you were calling from Spain, you would get Kleinman noted that outside of the United States,
a Spanish speaking person on the phone. That's not easy alternative payment methods are more often the norm
to do with a call center. I think it was the gold standard than the exception, depending on geography. "There is
of customer service and support in the multicurrency, much more complexity when it comes to the alternative
multilanguage market that is Europe." forms of payment that are available," Kleinman said. "You
have to be cognizant of that in every single country that
Today 34 countries, 523 million people, over 20 million you're in, even those that are within the European Union
businesses and more than 3,900 payment service providers or Europe as a whole."
are united under the Single Euro Payments Area, a pan-
European payments zone. "As you go eastward, Poland In the Netherlands, for example, iDeal, the online payment
is a very high-growth market, growing well into the system introduced by the country's banks in 2005,
double-digit level, whereas there are some clearly small processed 142.5 million transactions which reportedly
territories that are not growing so large, but Europe on accounted for 80 percent of the online transaction volume
a combined scale is in its entirety significantly larger in that region during 2013.
than North America," said Darren Wilson, President –
International for EVO Payments International LLC. "When you go to a payment page of a merchant in the
Netherlands, you see the iDeal logo," said Michael Doron,
Wilson noted that Western Europe is significantly behind Managing Director of Pay.ON America Inc. "You would
the United States in terms of integrated solutions. "It's click on it and you get redirected to your bank, or one of
growing," he said. "The Tier 1 merchants are certainly the 22 banks in that country. You log in and then push
there, either doing it themselves or outsourcing." He funds from your bank account directly to the merchant."
believes the global integration layer affords tremendous
opportunity for international players like EVO, which Also worth mentioning is that in Europe the merchant
has leveraged bank partnerships in Germany, Spain and underwriting process generally takes longer. "Here in
Poland to build a stable presence through white-label the U.S. you can have a merchant account approved the
branding. same day," Kleinman said. "That doesn't normally happen
in Europe. An individual MID [merchant identification
But at this point, volume of card acceptance and type number] might take three to four weeks to get approved,
of cards accepted are still factors. "Here in the U.S., 55 and it's much more laborious in the documentation that's
percent of small businesses claim to not accept credit required."
cards, and there are nearly 3.5 payment cards per person,"
said Pradeep Moudgal, Director, Emerging Technologies On a final note to installment one of this series, the
Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group. "In the European Commission is expected to finalize a plan to
European Union there are half as many cards per capita. regulate domestic interchange fees that places a cap of 0.3
On average it's about 1.8 cards per person." percent on credit and 0.2 percent for debit card transactions
by 2017. "So consequently with that prospect and the fact
Moudgal estimated that roughly 60 to 65 percent of small that multinational customers in e-commerce are becoming
merchants in Europe do not accept card payments; cash borderless, the need for us to trade or accept payments
payments dominate. However, European merchants truly locally has never been more relevant," EVO's Wilson
equipped with Europay/MasterCard/Visa-enabled mobile said.
card readers are required to pay for equipment unlike
41
Passport to Europe their U.S. counterparts, which has translated into high
activation rates among that user segment.
When international acquirer Elavon Inc., a wholly owned
subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, opened a contact center in For Santa Ana, Calif.-based Meritus Payment Solutions,
Warsaw, Poland, one of three such facilities it operates taking a pragmatic approach to establishing a presence
in Europe, customer experience was priority one. That's in Europe was critical. After launching multicurrency
because in the European Union, where the European processing as a service, Meritus then sought a European
Commission has officially recognized 24 languages, poor partner to facilitate international expansion for its mostly
communication due to language barriers can quickly U.S.-based, card-not-present e-commerce clients.
escalate into disgruntled customers.
Criteria for the search included companies with similar
To illustrate Elavon's level of commitment to customer technical capabilities, credit policies, organizational size
service at this facility, payments industry consultant Linda and target markets. "Some acquirers we met with had
Perry recalled that during a guided tour she encountered very limited systems and reporting, which is important to
college-educated customer service representatives each of us because many times we take liability when we process,
whom was fluent in three to four languages, so all local and we want to provide reporting comparable to what we
languages in Europe were represented. do in the U.S. to make sure our customers' experience is
seamless," said Alan Kleinman, Chief Executive Officer
"The phone would route callers to whoever was a local at Meritus.
speaker, so people would feel comfortable," Perry said.
"They knew if you were calling from Spain, you would get Kleinman noted that outside of the United States,
a Spanish speaking person on the phone. That's not easy alternative payment methods are more often the norm
to do with a call center. I think it was the gold standard than the exception, depending on geography. "There is
of customer service and support in the multicurrency, much more complexity when it comes to the alternative
multilanguage market that is Europe." forms of payment that are available," Kleinman said. "You
have to be cognizant of that in every single country that
Today 34 countries, 523 million people, over 20 million you're in, even those that are within the European Union
businesses and more than 3,900 payment service providers or Europe as a whole."
are united under the Single Euro Payments Area, a pan-
European payments zone. "As you go eastward, Poland In the Netherlands, for example, iDeal, the online payment
is a very high-growth market, growing well into the system introduced by the country's banks in 2005,
double-digit level, whereas there are some clearly small processed 142.5 million transactions which reportedly
territories that are not growing so large, but Europe on accounted for 80 percent of the online transaction volume
a combined scale is in its entirety significantly larger in that region during 2013.
than North America," said Darren Wilson, President –
International for EVO Payments International LLC. "When you go to a payment page of a merchant in the
Netherlands, you see the iDeal logo," said Michael Doron,
Wilson noted that Western Europe is significantly behind Managing Director of Pay.ON America Inc. "You would
the United States in terms of integrated solutions. "It's click on it and you get redirected to your bank, or one of
growing," he said. "The Tier 1 merchants are certainly the 22 banks in that country. You log in and then push
there, either doing it themselves or outsourcing." He funds from your bank account directly to the merchant."
believes the global integration layer affords tremendous
opportunity for international players like EVO, which Also worth mentioning is that in Europe the merchant
has leveraged bank partnerships in Germany, Spain and underwriting process generally takes longer. "Here in
Poland to build a stable presence through white-label the U.S. you can have a merchant account approved the
branding. same day," Kleinman said. "That doesn't normally happen
in Europe. An individual MID [merchant identification
But at this point, volume of card acceptance and type number] might take three to four weeks to get approved,
of cards accepted are still factors. "Here in the U.S., 55 and it's much more laborious in the documentation that's
percent of small businesses claim to not accept credit required."
cards, and there are nearly 3.5 payment cards per person,"
said Pradeep Moudgal, Director, Emerging Technologies On a final note to installment one of this series, the
Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group. "In the European Commission is expected to finalize a plan to
European Union there are half as many cards per capita. regulate domestic interchange fees that places a cap of 0.3
On average it's about 1.8 cards per person." percent on credit and 0.2 percent for debit card transactions
by 2017. "So consequently with that prospect and the fact
Moudgal estimated that roughly 60 to 65 percent of small that multinational customers in e-commerce are becoming
merchants in Europe do not accept card payments; cash borderless, the need for us to trade or accept payments
payments dominate. However, European merchants truly locally has never been more relevant," EVO's Wilson
equipped with Europay/MasterCard/Visa-enabled mobile said.
card readers are required to pay for equipment unlike
41
