Merchant Acquiring and Transaction Processing
Merchant acquiring has become an increasingly important component
of the payments industry as merchant power increases and new
payment products and technologies are deployed at the point-of-sale.
Our Merchant Acquiring and Transaction Processing practice offers
a suite of consulting and M&A advisory services for bank
and non-bank acquirers, independent sales organizations, third-party
processors, payment networks and associations, and other vendors
and service providers to the merchant acquiring industry. In
addition to our significant U.S. presence, we work extensively
in Canada, Mexico, South America, and Western Europe.
Services Offered
Strategy Development and Business Planning:
First Annapolis supports acquirers and processors in developing
successful business strategies and tactical plans. We help
our clients better understand the competitive forces that
they may be facing in the future and how to develop a strategy
to leverage their strengths and be more competitive. Our assistance
in this area includes providing market assessments, competitive
analyses, primary and secondary research, financial business
casing, opportunity assessments, business plan development,
and implementation support. These services are designed to
leverage our industry experience and analytical expertise
to help companies in the merchant acquiring industry create
and deploy winning strategies and tactics. Our extensive work
and close contact with the major companies in the industry
allow First Annapolis to stay on the cutting edge of industry
events and trends.
Company Performance Enhancement: First Annapolis
has worked with a significant number of the leading acquirers
and processors in the industry and has developed a database
of acquirer performance benchmarks. These include financial,
operational, and back-office metrics. Our experience with
clients has helped us understand best practices, system features,
and products utilized throughout the industry. Our ability
to help clients leverage this knowledge to enhance their capabilities
results in significantly improved financial and business performance.
Sales and Marketing Strategies: First Annapolis
helps acquirers understand the merchant marketplace and its
current trends, including identifying sales opportunities,
optimizing pricing, and evaluating sales performance. We assist
clients in developing a deeper knowledge of segments of their
portfolios that may be priced non-competitively and segments
where they may be leaving money on the table. We evaluate
various sales strategies and tactics and help clients choose
those that will optimize future revenues.
Portfolio Evaluation: We assist acquirers
by conducting thorough segmentations of their portfolios’
performance, by identifying underperforming segments (i.e.,
under-priced, high attrition, decreasing margins, high chargeback
rates, high losses, etc.), and by developing plans to improve
segment performance.
Customized Market Research: Conducting customized
market and competitive research has become one of our most
popular client requests. We can help design research efforts,
often through surveys and interviews, conduct the research,
compile and evaluate the results, and support the implement
the findings via new business strategies and tactics. Helping
our clients better understand their competitive situation
enables them to become long-term players in the industry.
Risk Management: Acquirers are increasingly
concerned about how to protect themselves from fraud and credit
losses. As smart cards begin to proliferate worldwide, the
industry anticipates the threat of fraud to increase in the
U.S. We help our clients understand and quantify their risk
exposure and develop strategies to guard against the “big
event” that can put an acquirer out of business. Due
to our deep industry experience and outstanding client feedback,
we have been selected as one of Visa’s preferred providers
for conducting risk management audits for acquirers.
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Advisory Support:
First Annapolis leverages its deep knowledge of the acquiring
industry to provide specialized M&A support to acquirers,
ISOs, processors, terminal management companies, and other
payments-related companies divesting or acquiring merchant
portfolios, businesses, and related assets. We can manage
the full portfolio divestiture process or provide targeted
due diligence, negotiation, or fairness opinion support. In
order to help clients maximize value in transaction situations,
First Annapolis leverages proprietary analytical tools, experience
with complex transactions, and strong relationships with key
buyers and sellers. We have assisted buyers and sellers on
more than fifty M&A and joint venture transactions over
the last ten years.
Business and Portfolio Valuation: First
Annapolis is quite experienced in valuing merchant acquiring
portfolios, businesses, and other related assets. Clients
frequently require valuation work in cases of contemplating
a sale, evaluating bids, buying out shareholders, and estimating
damages in legal matters. We utilize discounted cash flow
analysis along with historic comparable valuations to perform
accurate valuations.
Clients Served
First Annapolis works with bank and non-bank acquirers, independent
sales organizations (ISOs), third-party processors, card associations,
card networks, POS terminal manufacturers and management companies,
and other third-party vendors – both in the U.S. and
internationally. Over the years, we have worked with the majority
of the leading U.S. companies in the industry, and we believe
we offer a deeper knowledge of the merchant acquiring and
transaction processing industries than any other consulting
firm.
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