Agents Gone Bad ... Is There a List?

In our industry, we have a "Merchant Terminated File" list for obvious reasons. Do you know of an "Agent Terminated File" list? I have been in this industry for almost 12 years now and have seen or paid for almost every imaginable "BAD" agent tactic.

It is unfortunate that our industry must chase, and in many cases accept, losses associated with agent misrepresentation, application forgery, etc. from agents [who] perhaps are desperate, financially broke or just plain ignorant to think that their actions would not catch up with them.

I am ashamed that I have to craft such an e-mail, since this industry certainly does represent some amazing talent and expertise. However, those occasional bad apples tend to spoil the whole bunch.

Our most recent agent incident cost our company $7,000 once equipment and compensation [were] factored into the equation. With this all said, is there a legal or politically correct method to inform other ISOs of an agent gone bad?

In my opinion, if an agent gets away with something once, what is going to stop them from doing it again? I haven't even touched on my comments regarding application forgery leading up to identify theft; don't get me going on this subject. Any input would be greatly appreciated ...

- Name withheld upon request

Thanks for your inquiry. To the best of our knowledge, no such list exists. We have heard that some risk managers in the industry are pooling their knowledge-base in this area, but we believe this is very informal. David H. Press, Principal and President of Integrity Bankcard Consultants Inc., has written a number of articles on this subject for The Green Sheet. He is very knowledgeable in this area and can give you expert advice. E-mail him at dhp@integritybankcard.com .

Editor

How Many Checks?

[In] an article titled "Checks and Card Costs Driving ACH Growth" (By Patti Murphy, The Green Sheet, April 25, 2005, issue 05:04:02), there is a fact referenced on page 26 stating that CVS Pharmacy accepts 62 million checks per day. Is that correct or is it $62 million per day? They have only 5,000 locations; that number did not seem accurate.

The information is important to us as we are in the final stages of developing a new check reader-imager and application that offers features not found on any other check reader-imagers on the market.

- Bruce Brenner, President Electronic Processing of Texas Inc.

Bruce:

Thanks for your inquiry. The sentence should read "CVS Pharmacy accepts 62 million checks a year." The Green Sheet regrets the error.

Editor