o you know how many Asian American-owned small businesses are in the United States? Some estimates put the number as high as 350,000, and that's only for retail locations. The amount is enough to have one merchant service provider (MSP) focus exclusively on the Asian-American market. That MSP is BankCard Services.

"Accepting bankcards in the U.S. is a whole new experience for many first generation Asian-American merchants," said Patrick Hong, President of BankCard Services.

"Most Asian countries do not have the third-party merchant acquirer system; therefore, many Asian-American merchants are unfamiliar with working with a third-party acquirer."

Established in 1987, BankCard Services now serves more than 13,000 merchants and processes more than $1.2 billion in credit card volume nationwide. The company's headquarters are in Los Angeles. Its 153 employees work in 15 branch offices in major cities throughout the United States, including New York, Seattle, Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta.

Products offered include credit and debit card processing; ATM deployment and processing; check guarantee; payment gateway service for Internet merchants; and smart card programs. "We believe our experience and knowledge in providing payment processing services to merchants in the Asian market gives us the ability to effectively identify, evaluate, and manage the payment processing needs and risks that are unique to our clients," Hong said.

A Focus on Communication and Risk Management

"BankCard Services has both the knowledge and capability to meet the specific demands of [the] Asian market," Hong said. "Our specially formed group of distinguished bankcard professionals will work with merchants to customize a program that best suits every merchant in targeting the Asian market."

The company focuses on two main areas when serving its market: communication and risk management.

Communication

A main issue that BankCard Services addresses is that of a language barrier. The company employs a multilingual operator who directly answers all calls.

"For most of our merchants, English is not their primary language," Hong said. "Although they have questions and complaints about many different issues, from chargebacks to discount rates to technical problems, the explanations they receive from the majority of merchant acquirers are still too vague and not fully understandable."

Some other companies might offer interpreting, but Hong believes that multilingual customer service representatives serve merchants better. "Our highly trained native speakers provide extensive multilingual customer care, while other companies simply provide an interpreter," he said.

Furthermore, BankCard Services' deployment professionals provide multilingual assistance on terminal downloading.

The company also addresses effective communication in its printed materials. All BankCard Services merchants receive user's manuals in their primary language. They also receive company newsletters in their language of choice.

Risk Management

While it is important for merchants to understand salespeople, it's also important to have something of value to say. BankCard Services does. The company has a keen focus on risk management.

Its multilingual risk management personnel monitor each merchant account for red flags, such as duplicate, returned and keyed-in transactions. They also monitor every retrieval request and every chargeback case via mail or phone to prevent risk and fraud problems.

"It is [a] much labor-intensive, high-cost service, and only [a] few companies provide these services nowadays," Hong said.

Multilingual chargeback specialists prepare re-presentment and rebuttal letters. Merchants also receive the latest announcements regarding Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International rules and regulations in their primary language.

An Alliance Program for ISOs/MLSs

Until recently, BankCard Services focused solely on direct sales to branches and merchants. However, the company recently debuted an Alliance Partner Program, and it welcomes every agent and bank interested in targeting the Asian market.

"We have added many agent and referral bank relationships during the last several years, and we are developing strategies to further expand these relationships," Hong said.

"The Alliance Partner Program enables our partners to promote and retain Asian merchants who can easily slip away by helping our partners understand the unique niche the Asian merchant market occupies in the industry and providing the language support they need. BankCard Services believes that the program will serve as an excellent income drive for those who need extra support in targeting the Asian market."

Not only does BankCard Services provide communication aid to the merchants, but the company also provides it to its alliance partners. Multi-lingual bankcard professionals provide interpretation service between Asian language-speaking merchants and their partners. Therefore, ISOs/merchant level salespeople (MLSs) can share in the revenue of merchants that they might otherwise have overlooked because of communication barriers.

A Commitment to Community

Another unique aspect of BankCard Services is its commitment to community causes. The company launched the Community Reach-Out Program several years ago as a way to return a portion of its profits to the community.

BankCard Services actively supports various non-profit organizations, including sponsoring middle school field trips to Washington D.C. as well as Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for the homeless.

But, it's not only BankCard Services staff that contributes to the causes; merchants participate as well. In 2003 BankCard Services and its merchants worked on the Los Angeles Rampart Police Department Children's Room Renovation Project. BankCard merchants supported the project by sponsoring curtains, carpet, electronic devices and furniture. They also provided funds to complete the project.

While merchants contribute to BankCard Services' causes, some also benefit from its philanthropic efforts. The company annually grants scholarships worth $20,000 to 10 students who are enrolling in college the following year.

What makes this program unique is that the company gives the scholarships to the children of merchants.

For BankCard Services, success comes down to having the skills and the customer service to do the job right. "BankCard Services is always exploring new ways to enhance customer service," Hong said.

"We believe that our employees' strong desire to serve better allows us to maintain a competitive advantage in the industry. Our outstanding customer service has built loyalty and trust from customers."