fter nearly a decade as a stepchild of Visa U.S.A. and Total Systems Services (now known as TSYS), Vital Processing Services, the Tempe, Ariz.-based provider of transaction acquiring solutions, is ready to stake a place of its own in the market. The company has changed its name to TSYS Acquiring Solutions.

"It's a unique identifier," said Bev Wells, President and Chief Executive Officer of TSYS Acquiring Solutions. "It tells our customers that we're in this business for the long term."

Wells, a veteran banker who last headed treasury services and then card services at Wachovia Corp., was brought in to run Vital in 2003. During her tenure at Wachovia, Wells orchestrated that bank's sale of its credit card business to Bank One Corp., which is now part of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

"Our new name leverages and builds on a strong and respected TSYS brand, both domestically and internationally, and allows us to accelerate innovation, create more strategic value and further develop opportunities for our client partners; for our employees; for our stakeholders; and now, as part of a publicly traded company, our shareholders," she said.

No longer morphing names

In May 1996, Vital began as a joint venture of Visa and TSYS, which is majority-owned by Synovus Financial Corp., of Columbus, Ga. The idea was to create a company that could compete head-to-head against First Data Corp., the largest U.S. acquiring business.

Visa merged its VisaNet authorization and data capture network with TSYS' clearing and settlement system. (The name Vital came from a morphing of the two original owners' names, Visa and Total.)

In March 2005, TSYS bought out Visa's remaining 50% equity stake share of the company, and Vital became a wholly owned TSYS subsidiary. The TSYS buyout was prompted by a combination of factors, Wells said, including a desire to pursue international clients, especially for card-issuing services. As long as the company was part-owned by Visa, an Association controlled by Visa card issuers, those plans couldn't progress.

New offerings

At the 2006 ETA Annual Meeting & Expo, Wells and her staff spent time showing off the new name and meeting with clients, press and others under the TSYS Acquiring Solutions banner.

The company also used the Expo to showcase several new offerings in support of contactless, dynamic currency conversion, gift card, service-station/convenience-store payments, and merchant statement and reporting capabilities for acquirer research and portfolio management.

Synovus, which owns an 80% interest in TSYS, consistently earns high marks as an employer and a publicly traded company. Fortune magazine has honored Synovus as one of its "Most Admired Companies" and has listed it as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For."

Its standing as a unit of Synovus bodes well for TSYS Acquiring Solutions clients, Wells said. "Our clients get the same type of treatment as the people in the company."