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and problems those may create for clients. Paybotic, which
specializes in serving high-risk merchants, counts as cli-
Three hurricanes alone – Harvey, Irma ents several cannabis dispensaries in the state.
and Maria – cost local economies on
the U.S. mainland $265 billion, NOAA "I anticipate some of our merchants will be affected," Mill-
er said. "We can provide wireless terminals and mobile
said. Adding damages from other gateways. We'll be dispatching them as fast as we can."
mainland disasters and those sustained Help in the aftermath of disasters is especially important,
in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin and in some situations there are sufficient warnings to
prepare for those eventualities.
Islands brought the total to more than
$500 billion. "Obviously, when there's a big storm, like a hurricane,
there's some advance warning," Kalemis said. "So we go
through our database to see if we have any clients in areas
"Small businesses are primary drivers of job growth, and expected to be impacted. We check what services they use,
their ability to rebound from disasters is critical to region- and we reach out to them." This outreach might include
al economic recovery," said Claire Kramer Mills, assistant sending out credit card terminals (even old-fashioned
vice president at the New York Fed. knuckle busters), making alternative processing arrange-
ments, even submitting client payrolls ahead of estab-
Samuel Storey, community development senior research lished ACH deadlines.
analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, added,
"This report shows that while small businesses experi- Kalemis related an example from earlier this year when a
enced significant asset damages, their pain was doubly hurricane threatened the Florida panhandle. One of Sim-
felt due to lost revenue and employment gains as well. pay's clients, an open-air bar, was right in the path of the
Also, we found that certain communities were more vul- storm. "What we did was call them before the storm hit
nerable to experiencing natural disasters and suffering and told them to pack away their POS system and store it
related losses." someplace where it couldn't get damaged," Kalemis said.
"We sent out credit card terminals they could use instead,
Keeping revenue pumps primed and told them we'd batch out the transactions on our end."
Acquirers, ISOs and merchant level salespeople (MLSs) can Then, once the storm passed, and merchants were open
play pivotal roles helping small business minimize the im- again, they could continue to use the terminals, and if nec-
pact disasters have on revenues. In 2017, when Hurricane essary call in transaction data until electricity and cell ser-
Maria devastated Puerto Rico and much of the U.S. Virgin vice resumed in the region. Simpay will also suppress all
Islands, San Juan-based Dynamics Payments immediately billing to clients impacted by a disaster until the merchant
went about helping local merchants get back to business. informs Simpay that they're back on their feet, Kalemis
It worked out an agreement with CardFlight, which offers noted.
SwipeSimple, a turnkey mobile solution, waiving monthly
and setup fees so merchants could start accepting card Darren Schulman, president at 6th Avenue Capital, said
payments from supported mobile devices and web brows- his firm embraces a similar strategy with funding clients
ers once mobile networks were back on line. experiencing business interruptions due to natural disas-
ters. "The first thing we do when a natural disaster hits is
In 2012, when Super Storm Sandy wreaked havoc along call them," he said.
the East Coast, Simpay, a Philadelphia-based ISO known
at the time as Alpha Card Services, had numerous affected But it's not just weather that gives merchants problems.
clients. With many facing devastating blows to business, "Sometimes, it's because the business is inaccessible,"
Simpay sprang into action helping clients to get up and Schulman said, perhaps because of road construction out
running, and assuring them they didn't have to worry front. "When we know about things like that [because
about paying for new hardware until their insurance they call to tell us] we give them a delay or lower their
claims were settled, stated Lazaros Kalemis, the compa- payments," he said. "We're there, helping them in the good
ny's founder and CEO. times. We have to be there when things are bad, too."

"We didn't get paid for 14 weeks, but they were in busi- Taking a multifaceted approach
ness," Kalemis said. "We're building long term relation-
ships, so we bend over backwards to help them. What we Mary Uslander, senior vice president at First Data Corp.,
do to help really helps to attach them to us." now Fiserv, described the acquirer's strategy for dealing
with disasters as multipronged, entailing not only out-
Max Miller, founder and CEO of Paybotic, said he's keep- reach to clients before and after an event, but ensuring
ing a close eye on wildfires currently raging in California support staff potentially in the path of an oncoming event

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