By Jeff Connors

May 13, 2013

I was reading the Money2020 blog the other day and came across this post by Sanjib Kalita that I found quite informative and thought I’d share with you. The post does a nice job of putting into perspective the key issues raised by the FTC report—issues that every small business involved in payments processing needs to keep in mind to stay relevant in today’s shifting landscape:

The Federal Trade Commission released a report today highlighting some of the key issues in mobile payments from their perspective.  The report is titled “Paper, Plastic… or Mobile? An FTC Workshop on Mobile Payments,” and is based on a workshop held by the Commission in 2012.  There were three key issues raised by this report: dispute resolution, data security, and privacy.  None of these issues are new for the payments industry.  However, the nature of mobile payments raises the importance and visibility of these risks.

Dispute Resolution:

FTC staff looked at the websites of 19 different mobile wallets.  Of the 19, 15 allowed consumer to fund mobile payments by their credit cards.  7 allowed consumers to fund by directly debiting their bank accounts.  4 solutions allowed carrier billing. 7 allowing funding by multiple sources.

Dispute resolution processes are well defined for debit and credit cards. However, they are less defined for prepaid cards or gift cards.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is looking at extending protections on other cards to General Purpose Reloadable cards.  The protections in consideration are: 1) liability limits, 2) disclosure requirements for fees and expiration dates, 3) error resolution procedures, and 4) authorization standards for recurrent payments.

Carrier billing is an even less well defined funding vehicle.  Disputes for carrier billing are essentially dependent upon the good will of the carrier.  There are no statutes or regulations which enable consumers and companies to set some benchmarks.  For example, how could a consumer restrict billing on their account by 3rd parties?

Data Security:

The Federal Reserve performed a consumer survey where 42% on consumer said they were concerned about data security on mobile wallets. Given the recent news about foreign governments systematically hacking into corporate websites, this percentage could likely now be higher.  The FTC report mentioned two methods of increasing data security: end-to-end data encryption, and passwords.  Given the amount of personal data at risk, this area could represent a major pain point for consumers and companies alike.

Privacy:

The FTC mentioned two key concerns with respect to privacy: consumer ability to control what data is shared, transparency by companies about what data is shared.  In general, European consumers tend to be more protective of their privacy while consumers in the US do care about it, but are more open to sharing their data with the appropriate controls and rewards.  Given the value of the consumer data associated with mobile wallets, there will be greater business and financial pressure to use this data.

Looking Forward:

Mobile wallets as a category are still in their infancy.  The accepted consumer norms and business practices still need to be created.  The business models to create a sustainable mobile payments ecosystem remain to be proven.  Government regulators such the FTC are monitoring markets in order to ensure the fairness of the systems that are created.

Source:  Money2020 on Fri, 03/08/2013 – 20:35

By Phillip Head
4/23/13

In everything we do at Intrix Technology, it is our goal to help small business merchants; from releasing new electronic payment processing software to offering a complete line of credit card processing equipment and hardware.  Recently, we added another tool to make it easy for merchants to succeed in business by getting needed capital affordably.

That new tool is our Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) program – a program that provides you with funding options.  With the Intrix MCA, you can easily obtain working capital that can be used for any business purpose.  In essence, we advance the funds and actually purchase your future credit card receivables.

Cash Advances (also known as “account receivables factoring” in the banking industry) have been around for a while, but it was not until just a few years ago that merchants could take advantage of this type of funding.  Since the payments come directly from your credit card merchant account through a percentage of each credit card transaction your business makes, the amount due on the loan can be quickly and easily paid back.

We want this to be simple, so we’re offering three MCA programs:

Platinum Program

• Merchants with low risk characteristics
• Must process an average of at least $25,000 per month

Gold Program

• Merchants with medium risk characteristics
• Must process an average of at least $22,000 per month

Standard Program

• Merchants with medium to high risk characteristics
• Must process an average of at least $7,500 per month

With bank loans difficult to come by, it’s no secret that small businesses are looking for alternative financing sources.  A recent guest blog talked about the difference between a small business loan and a merchant cash advance and when each funding option might be right for your small business.

As your merchant payment processing provider, we’re here to help.  If you’re thinking about a cash advance, give us a call at 877-440-1306.  We’ll help you determine if one is right for you.

About the Author

Phillip Head, Senior Vice President of Sales, Intrix, joined the team late last year.  Prior to Intrix, Phillip led a sales group at First Funds, a cash advance company where he helped grow the company by assisting merchants with debt funding. Earlier, he was with Accelerated Payment Technologies which was recently acquired by Global Payments. As SVP he drives nationwide sales for our payment processing solutions and is responsible for building the VAR channel and creating a telemarketing group.

Guest Blog
By Jeremy Frank
Principis Capital
4/2/2013

Did you know that banks aren’t the only source of working capital for small businesses? Even if you’ve been turned down for a business loan, if you use a credit card processor you could have access to fast and flexible financing for your business.  Principis, which provides small businesses with financing, recently partnered with Intrix to provide Intrix customers with such financing for their businesses.

So, here are all the facts you need to know about getting funding for your business.

Running a business isn’t easy. Taking care of customers is difficult enough, but there’s a whole dimension to your business that customers never even see. Inventories need to be restocked, equipment needs to be repaired and upgraded, and staff needs to be paid. There’s a lot of truth to that old saying, “You gotta spend money to make money.” But when you find yourself low on working capital, how can you keep your business moving forward?

Small business owners are faced with a confusing number of funding options, so many that it can be hard to soft through all the offers and know what’s the right one for your business. So let’s break down the difference between the 2 major types of small business financing:

Small Business Bank Loans

This is the most common way people look for working capital, and may be the one you’re most familiar with. After submitting your application to the bank, they will examine a number of factors including your credit history and the amount of collateral you can put up. If your application is approved, you’ll receive your lump sum bank loan and be expected to pay it back by a certain date. Usually, the loan will come with fixed repayment installments that must be met or penalties can occur.

Who it’s best for: Small businesses with totally predictable monthly sales, strong credit history, and own their own real estate that they can put up as collateral.

Merchant Cash Advances

Many merchants don’t know about the existence of this funding option. Merchant cash advances differ from small business loans in that they are a purchase of future credit card sales. Unlike a traditional loan, it isn’t based on your personal credit history and instead on how much business you’re doing. This makes it ideal for business owners who don’t have perfect credit or who don’t have collateral to put down. Instead of fixed payments, you repay a set percentage of your credit card sales — when business is slow, you pay less and when business picks up, you pay it off faster. This is also advantageous for seasonal businesses or businesses whose monthly receipts tend to vary.

Who it’s best for: Small businesses whose receipts vary month to month, owners with less-than-perfect credit history, have no collateral or would just prefer more flexibility.

Principis Capital Is Proud to be Partnered with Intrix

The merchant cash advances offered by Intrix (funded by Principis Capital), along with their processing technology, allows Intrix to be a one-stop shop by providing not only technology solutions and Merchant services, but, also funding. If you’d like more information about small merchant cash advances offered by Intrix or information about how cash advances work, please visit either Intrix or  Principis Capital.

Jeremy Frank is Social & Content Marketing Manager at Principis Capital, which offers small business owners the financing they need to expand or strengthen their businesses.  Businesses can receive funds within a week by obtaining a merchant cash advance, a great alternative to traditional small business loans or equity investments. Principis’ years of experience provide a deep understanding of small businesses. Whether a local Mom-and-Pop outlet, a one-person service provider, or a large multi-location chain, Principis has a program to suit a company’s needs.

By Tim Carter
3/12/2013

In our last blog we talked about PCI compliance for E-Commerce.  In today’s post, I’d like to talk about a complementary topic, tokenization.

So what is tokenization, and why should you care?

Tokenization, in its simplest form, is another way of saying ‘data substitution.’  It’s the use of a substitute value, or ‘token’, which has no inherent value, in the place of data that does have value. That way, if the system using tokens is compromised, it is the tokens that are taken, not the actual valuable data.

The way tokenization works for credit card processing is that it replaces primary account numbers (PANs), or the 16-digit numbers found on the front of debit and credit cards, with a token value.

When a payment transaction is initiated, the credit or debit card number is replaced with a token, which ultimately is assigned either to a specific transaction or a card number. When the transaction is processed, the card information associated with the token is used, rather than the card number itself.

Tokenization aims to bolster security by reducing an attacker’s ability to steal credit card information. Essentially, if a transaction is somehow intercepted or a database compromised, the only thing a hacker can “steal” is the token—and that information is worthless.

When properly implemented, tokenization allows merchants to limit the storage of cardholder data to within the tokenization system–simplifying an entity’s assessment against the PCI DSS. As a reference or surrogate value for the original PAN, a token can be used by systems and applications within a merchant environment without having to consider the security implications associated with the use of actual cardholder data.

What Are the Benefits of Tokenization?

• Reduces PCI DSS Scope
• Renders payment card data meaningless to hackers
• Provides end-to-end security
• Format fits legacy payment card data fields
• Retains last four digits of original payment card data for easy customer identification

One key feature that tokenization can provide is the ability to process recurring transactions.  In a recurring transaction scenario, the processor provides a mapping capability between tokens and the original cardholder data.  On a recurring transaction, the merchant passes the token back to the processor and the processor looks up the token and then generates a transaction based on the cardholder data associated with the token.

Intrix’s payment gateway provides “tokenization” through its vault—taking credit and/or debit card numbers out of the payments cycle.  It’s just one more way we help eliminate the vast majority of PCI compliance burdens you would otherwise face.

We’re here to help. If you have any questions about tokenization or PCI compliance, just let us know. We’d love to hear from you.
Tim Carter

About Tim
Tim Carter, Vice President of Finance, Intrix joined the company in 1996 and helped develop Intrix’ initial application in the e-payments space.   He served as on-site Project Manager for many successful implementations of the Intrix TITAN product before taking on the VP of Operations and Finance role.   With over 25 years in the aerospace, telecommunication, manufacturing, and IT industries, he led many MRP, ERP, point-of-sale, accounting, finance and payment processing integration projects as well as Lean and Six Sigma business and process improvement initiatives. He holds a BA in Business Administration Management Information Systems, and a Masters in Management Science.

By Jesse Beaty
2/25/13

On January 31, The PCI Security Standards Council issued new guidelines for protecting payment card data during Internet transactions.  Since preventing fraud is of paramount importance in today’s payments environment, we thought we would get you up speed on the latest news.

This new set of card data security guidelines for merchants and payments providers aims to address increasing risks unique to e-commerce environments.   It’s a 39-page guide that outlines common vulnerabilities in e-commerce environments and offers security best practices for organizations that collect payment card data.  It has recommendations covering everything from online risks associated with payment gateways to often-overlooked security gaps web-hosting providers can inadvertently create.

As more and more merchants move sales online, e-commerce risks are growing.   One of the biggest problems, however, is that most merchants don’t appreciate the new threats they face.  So, the guidance is a down-to-earth primer for the merchant to make sure they are touching on all the aspects they are seeing in today’s world when adding e-commerce onto their brick and mortar.

The new PCI guidelines apply to any merchant or service provider that handles, processes, stores or transmits credit card data.  Some of the highlights:

• The top weaknesses in web applications are SQL injection, cross-site scripting and buffer overflows.
• Weak passwords or login credentials, and security misconfigurations are also listed as common vulnerabilities.
• Know the location of all cardholder data, do not store any data that is not necessary to business, and implement security training for staff and educate consumers on policies involving their shared information.

A Special Internet Group of 60 banks, merchants, security assessors and technology vendors developed the guidelines.  Convenience Store Decisions  and Bank InfoSecurity have nice write-ups in the February 1st issues with some additional context.

At Intrix, we take PCI compliance seriously.

Ever since its inception, PCI has been viewed by many as a thorn in their side—ISO’s had no process developed to implement this new regulation and merchants didn’t understand that it was designed to protect them.  As a matter of fact, Intrix was no different back then.   But what sets us apart today is our hands on approach and our superior process.

The old saying holds true, practice makes perfect.  We have refined our process so well that merchants barely notice it’s there.  When it comes to providing the absolute best service for our merchants, PCI compliance is at the top of the list.  It is our responsibility to assist our merchants through the process of becoming compliant.  From partnering with the proper PCI vendor to educating our merchants, we are here to make this association requirement as smooth as possible.

Here are a few reasons merchant should become PCI compliant

1. PCI is here to stay: Card Brand focus/Legislative momentum.
2. Hackers increasingly target small businesses.
3. Most data breaches remain very preventable.
4. Complying with PCI does not cost a lot for the typical Level 4 Merchant.
5. Not complying with PCI has the potential to be very expensive.
6. Data security and privacy protection are huge concerns of customers.
7. Reputational and brand damage are hard to measure if the merchant is breached.
8. Merchant relationships can be strengthened if they understand the value of being PCI compliant.

We’re here to help. If you have any questions about PCI compliance, just let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

Jesse Beaty

About Jesse

Jesse Beaty, Vice President of Operations, Intrix, was thrown into the fast paced and exciting world of payments processing in 2004. He began his career with TransFirst, starting as a technical support representative, then leading a team of reps providing support for ISOs and agents, and then moving into sales. In 2007, he was recruited by start-up ISO Epic Processing and became the first employee.  In his five plus years with Epic, he handled a wide range of activities including operations, agent relationship management, quarterly auditing: revenue, PCI, residual, and portfolio volume, retention programs, agent residual generation, and more. Jesse joined Intrix in 2012.

By Jeff Connors
1/25/13

​We’re growing and expanding.  And, I’m thrilled to announce two pieces of news that is helping to make this happen.

Phillip Head

First, we’ve added a tremendously capable leader to the Intrix team.  Phillip Head has joined as our Senior Vice President of Sales.   Phillip comes to us from Accelerated Payment Technologies, a leading integrated payment solutions company for small and medium sized businesses which was recently acquired by Global Payments. During his two and a half years with the company, Phillip led a 40-person sales team and increased sales by more than 48%.  As our SVP of sales he will drive worldwide sales for our payment processing solutions as well as build our VAR channel and create a telemarketing group.

And, just a few days ago we announced that we hired prominent payments industry consulting firm PayEx LLC to help us as we map out our next phase of growth.  We’ve spent the last year building out our infrastructure to handle growth and expansion.  One of PayEx’s key roles will be to find acquisitions that will allow us to add new products and new sales offices.  We’re hoping to make one or more strategic acquisitions in the next 12 months.

We’re committed to providing even more complete payment processing solutions for ever more customers.

Our blog team is growing too!

Good News! We have three new team members who will be contributing blog articles. Phillip Head, our new SVP of Sales, will keep us up-to-date on Business Development activities.  Tim Carter, vice president of finance, will write about the latest Technology.  (Tim has been deeply involved in payment processing integration projects for years and was instrumental in developing Intrix’ initial application in the e-payment space).  Jesse Beaty, vice president of operations, will focus on Customer Service—and will ask and answer questions.

We’ve also lined up several guest bloggers from various disciplines.  I think you’ll find their insights about key payments processing issues to be both interesting and enlightening.

You’ll be hearing from one of our new contributing editors or guest bloggers about once a month, offering an inside perspective in their area of expertise.  What do you want to hear from our new writers? Let us know here in the comments section!

By Jeff Connors
1/8/13

Welcome to the Intrix Blog! Today is the official launch of the Blog, and of what will hopefully become an excellent source of credible and insightful information for merchants in the payment processing industry.
Intrix Technology is a leader and innovator in payment processing solutions for developers, enterprises, retailers, processors and sales organizations. We deliver products that make payment acceptance seamless to your organization. With more than a decade of experience, we’re changing the payments world—so you can provide solutions for the way people pay.
Over the next few months, our goal is to become a destination for those of you who want to stay abreast of payment industry developments. We’ll be offering industry “news you can use” and commentary, recapping key trade shows and industry events, highlighting interesting videos, featuring Q&A’s with customers and partners as well as hosting posts from well-known guest contributors. We’ll also provide insightful articles so that you can become better educated about the intricacies of the payment processing industry.
We hope to have interactions with you, the users of Intrix technology, and with our ecosystem partners. Please feel free to comment or ask questions, we’ll do our best to be helpful and timely.
As Chairman and CEO of Intrix, I’ll also be corresponding with you from time to time, but I think you undoubtedly will want to hear from the payment industry specialists who make up our team.
We invite you to join us as we deliver exciting new solutions into the payment processing world. Please subscribe to the blog, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn as well!
Best Regards,
Jeff Connors