ational Processing Co. has come full circle. After months of rumors that Bank of America Corp. had put NPC up for sale, the ISO unit was sold to Iron Triangle Payment Systems LLC. The deal, announced Sept. 15, puts NPC back into the hands of its former Chief Executive Officer Tom Wimsett.

Iron Triangle, founded by Wimsett in 2003, and its primary investor, GTCR Golder Rauner, agreed to purchase the NPC ISO business and brand from Bank of America's card processing division, BA Merchant Services Inc. The bank acquired NPC two years ago for $1.4 billion. Details of the new transaction were not made public.

After the acquisition, Iron Triangle will become the sixth largest merchant acquirer and the third largest nonbank acquirer, said Wimsett, Iron Triangle's President and CEO. The deal includes another BA Merchant Services subsidiary: Best Payment Solutions Inc.

Iron Triangle will now support over 260,000 merchant locations and represent over $25 billion in annual processing volume, he said. Subsidiary Retriever Payment Systems, which Iron Triangle acquired in 2005, serves 100,000 merchants.

Wimsett has said a goal of Iron Triangle and GTCR is to take the company public, as NPC was when he was CEO. "Upon completion of this integration, which will be almost completely seamless for merchants, we'll be of the size where [an initial public offering] becomes a very viable option for us," he said.

"As far as timing, we're not going to nail down a commitment on that, but it's a viable option over the next 12 to 18 months."

ISOs and merchant level salespeople (MLSs) currently with NPC should see faster boarding of new merchants using Retriever's boarding platform, Wimsett said.

Because of Bank of America's focus on the direct sales channel, it had not invested in newer boarding technologies. The livelihood of ISOs and MLSs "depends on how soon you can get them boarded. Our technology allows that to happen in hours rather than days," he said.

Integrated leadership

Randy Sagar, Senior Vice President of Indirect Sales at BA Merchant Services, who headed the NPC team, will be involved with the new company.

"We're excited about working with Randy and his team," Wimsett said. "In the past three years, Randy's tripled that business by working through independent sales offices."

Sagar will head business development for the consolidated firm, whose name has yet to be determined. "We're still working through the branding issues," although the names National Processing Co. and Retriever will both remain in use, Wimsett said.

Retriever's Jim Oberman, Mark Schatz and Joe Natoli will have leadership roles in the new entity. Oberman will be in charge of operations oversight. Schatz will be responsible for strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and legal issues. Natoli will head client services.

The management team has a lot of experience operating listed companies in the public market, Wimsett said.

Cross-selling priorities

Bank of America will retain its direct, national merchant accounts. The bank divested NPC, its indirect sales channel, because the investment in its branch network and small business customers is a priority.

"They want to be able to cross-sell multiple products to those small businesses," Wimsett said.

An ISO channel doesn't lend itself to cross-selling opportunities and integration with other lines of business, as the bank's own sales channels do, said BA Merchant Services Executive Mark Pyke.

Steve Feldshuh, President of Business Payment Systems, a registered ISO/MSP with NPC in Association with Bank of America, N.A., speculated that the bank bought NPC for the banking relationships associated with its many national retail accounts.

"They bought it for those mass box merchants and for those banking relationships," he said. NPC's national accounts were merged into BA Merchant Services' non-ISO business, he said.

The NPC ISO business now represents 3% of BA Merchant Services' overall transactions, the bank stated. Many of the 94 affected Bank of America associates supporting independent sales teams are expected to be offered comparable positions with Iron Triangle.

No love lost?

"I don't think [Bank of America] cared about the ISO business - our business - because they cut back on customer service and tech support and everything [positive] that NPC did," Feldshuh said. "When BofA came in and merchants had to wait an hour and a half on the phone to get through [to tech support], you lose them, and the sales agents, too."

While competing processors cut down boarding time, BA Merchant Services was taking five to seven days, he estimated.

A Bank of America spokeswoman said the bank had no comment on this.

Management at Iron Triangle has "a much better feel for the ISO market," Feldshuh said. "I think Tom Wimsett will do a good job." But Iron Triangle will have to "win back the hearts and minds" of NPC's ISOs and agents to keep them from leaving as contracts expire, he added. Business Payment Systems' contract expires in early 2008.

Iron Triangle's acquisition is an ideal union for NPC, Wimsett said. "We're very focused on merchant acquiring and offer a full suite of products and services. We're all about payment processing at the POS, and we do that almost exclusively through ISOs, so it's a great fit."

Sagar said Iron Triangle has a good idea of what ISOs are looking for and will deliver models that benefit them. Iron Triangle's services include transaction-processing support for all major credit and debit cards, government benefit programs, check conversion, and gift cards.

One such benefit for NPC ISOs is Retriever Online, the company's customer resource management system, Wimsett said.

Iron Triangle will retain many NPC and Best Payment offices in Houston, Chicago and Louisville.