Our Acquiring practice area is the most specialized in the industry with deep expertise on consulting assignments around the world and on many of the industry's most influential transactions. We have a thorough understanding of market dynamics such as business strategies, deal activity, competitive trends, industry economics, vendor selection, and acquiring products and operations. Our clients include transaction processors, bank and non-bank acquirers, card brands, independent sales organizations, payment service providers, merchants, regulators, and investors throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South America, and Europe.
Client Profile
Our clients have engaged the acquiring practice across several areas of strategic focus in addition to core acquiring projects as indicated below. In addition, we work with each client to build a customized project plan. Many of our engagements follow a similar orientation, including:
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Project Highlights
In any given year, we annually work on 80 to 100 acquiring projects for 30 to 40 different clients The highlights below are representative of the type of assignments we complete in the U.S. and abroad.
Business Planning
- Managed the strategic planning processes for super-regional and regional acquirers.
- Assisted over twenty merchant acquirers in developing business strategies, organizational structures, and tactical recommendations for enhancing the profitability of the merchant business.
- Assisted merchants in developing overall acceptance strategy.
Pricing Analysis
- Routinely provide pricing analysis, profitability assessments, and benchmarking services to merchant acquirers and transaction processors.
International Expansion, Divestures, and Joint Ventures
- Represented over sixty (60) acquirers/processors in the sale or purchase of companies and/or portfolios which involved due diligence on the sellers’ operational, financial, and risk management policies, practices, and performance.
- Negotiated joint venture opportunities for acquirers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Mexico.
Valuation
- Conducted valuations for bank acquirers, ISOs, merchant processors, terminal management companies, and payment gateways.
Market Research
- Conducted numerous market surveys and other proprietary research efforts to document trends in payment acceptance and pricing of transaction processing.
- Completed an in-depth study of the agent banking market and related products/services offered to these banks that required interviews with over 50 community banks on behalf of a large super-regional bank to complete the study.
Risk Assessment
- Conducted an operational and risk management review that included merchant attrition analysis, boarding, and development of a retention plan for a leading non‑bank acquirer.
- Performed a benchmarking exercise to review and provide constructive feedback on the merchant services credit policies and procedures for a large regional bank’s merchant acquiring line of business.
Business Diagnostics
- Provided an evaluation on overall management and performance of the merchant programs for ten top-50 bank acquirers
- Performed a benchmarking exercise to review and provide constructive feedback on the merchant sales and services for a large regional bank’s merchant acquiring line of business.
Vendor Selection
- Assisted several large U.S. merchants in evaluating their current processing arrangement and assisting in the vendor selection process for credit card processing services.
- Assisted a top 20 merchant acquirer in conducting a vendor selection process for front-end and back-end merchant processing.
Leadership
Our Acquiring team draws on a pool of professionals. Each member of our team has specialized areas of focus within the acquiring practice so that we provide our clients with the most in-depth knowledge and experience. For more information on our Acquiring leadership team, please reference their biographies:
