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The American Bankers Association is among a passel of
organizations cheering the move, noting in a statement
that it will "provide another important opportunity to
further reduce the number of unbanked in the country
from the current record low of 4 percent."
Innovation continues to generate
new players, investments

One enduring source of promise is that merchant
services continues to attract entrepreneurs eager to
deliver innovative products and services.

"The trend is toward more customizable solutions," said
Dee Karawadra, CEO at Impact PaySystem and Impact
TechLab. Karawadra and his team recently completed
work on ISOHub.com, which had its genesis in CRM,
"but it's more than that," Karawadra said, adding that
it's an agent management tool that's built to be intuitive
and generate any reports an ISO might need.

There is also a greater focus on embedded payments.
One company making significant strides on that
front is Full Stack Payments, a unified payment
platform that enables SaaS companies and ISOs to
monetize transactions through seamless embedded
solutions. Some of the verticals where the company
has been getting traction include self storage facilities,
restaurants, gym/fitness facilities and gun shops.

Recently Full Stack secured $4.5 million from
Netivia Financial to accelerate its SaaS and ISO
channel expansion. By combining a robust agent-
led distribution network with a scalable onboarding
infrastructure, the company is positioned to deliver
measurable value to both technology partners and
ISOs, said Full Stack CEO John Shirey. bluu™ Tab Order is designed to
help restaurants improve efficiency,
"Our SaaS partners want more than a PayFac – they
want a true payments partner that understands their reduce labor costs, and boost
vertical and can execute with speed," Shirey said. "This customer experience.
funding helps us meet that demand at scale while
leveraging our agent/ISO distribution channel."

In addition, merchant services providers and their
partners, both upstream and downstream, are using
AI to improve efficiency, security and the customer
experience. It can be leveraged to support real-time
pricing adjustments and optimize transaction routing,
for example.

"Risk monitoring and merchant adjudication is a
perfect application," Musante said. "AI can be used
today to lessen false positives, more quickly review
applications and determine exposure."

Patti Murphy is senior editor at Green Sheet and president of
ProScribes Ink, (www.proscribes.net). You can also follow her blog,
Today in Payments, at (Todayinpayments.com), and her podcast,
Merchant Sales Podcast, co-hosted with James Shepherd at www.
ccsalespro.com/podcast.
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