Quick & Dirty on the Durbin

The Durbin Amendment, a component of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform Act, is new law that goes into effect October 1, 2011, that in the simplest terms is intended to reduce the amount you, the business owner, pay for debit card transactions. 


While we have heard of many different reactions inside the Merchant Services industry to this act in terms of pricing adjustments and sales tactics, please know that by law it's provisions apply to all merchant accounts nationwide and you should not have to make any adjustments to your account to see the benefits. 


Here's how it breaks down. For PIN Debit and Signature PIN Debit, or debit card transactions in which the card holder enters their pin number, transactions rates are capped at:


$0.21 transaction fee + .05% (AKA 5 basis points - ex. - for $1000 transaction .05% is $5) + $0.01 for card issuers with verifiable fraud prevention efforts.


For offline, or non-pin debit transactions (cases where the card is recognized as debit but the cardholder does not enter their PIN number, the rates are capped at:


.05% basis points + .11% dues and assessments + $0.21 transaction fee + $0.01 for card issuers who demonstrate fraud prevention efforts. 


If you have any questions about how this works, regardless of your processor, we're here to help. 
Please email dallasg@the-fta.org with any questions I'll be happy to help in any way I can. 

Financial service industries are changing, and so are we...

Our mission is to embody a culture of service, transparency and adherence to gold-standard business practices – and develop our role as leaders in our industry. Our current customers have achieved 1400% less risk than the average business, and they have minimized uncertainty and managed down volatility. These clients have the prestige that makes our business exclusive that we want to maintain. To set a course for our future, we have shifted from customer acquisition to a service-based company.


To set a course for our future, we are developing new company initiatives that will focus on improving our customer services. Our industry and customers will soon see the positive changes our adjustments will make. Stay tuned for more updates. 

FTA Consortium/Employee Appreciation night!

The Funds Transfer Alliance held its annual company-wide consortium, as well as its Employee Appreciation night this last Friday, July 29^th. The satellite office members of the company flew into Phoenix from all over the country to discuss new technologies, trends and trainings.  The office was filled to brimming during the day, while the local employees got to meet the extended FTA family, and learn a bit more about what their time in the other regions is like.

During the evening, the Employee Appreciation night took place at “Let It Roll Bowl,” with a company-wide bowling tournament. The event was a huge success, with a professional photographer, great food and drink, and a remarkable turn out. At the end of the night, Dallas, Geri, and Merle were still standing as the victorious team, winning four games to take it all. Their efforts were rewarded with $100 gift cards and trophies, and several other employees were winners in the raffle, taking home gift baskets.

The event closed out late in the evening with rides provided for all attendees. The entire company left a little bit closer knit, and with great memories to share. Thanks to all who helped create a spectacular evening! We all look forward to the year to come!

Netswipe - Web Cam Based Card Transactions

Jumio has elected to create a new system for credit card transactions: scanning by way of web camera. The new system, called “Netswipe,” apparently allows the system to verify a credit card visually while the CVV number will be entered manually by mouse. This system benefits from the security are allegedly manifold; through a number of factors, cards are verified and validated to ensure that no fake card can pass. There have been over a million test examples of the system, with an extraordinarily high success rate. On top of this, the company has a security team who monitors transactions manually to ensure a lower set of risks.

This system is designed to ensure that credit card fraud is a thing of the past. The technology is also PCI compliant already. The technology promises that any system that employs a camera and internet access – like cell phones, for example – will be fully capable of processing payments as a virtual machine.

This will allow consumers an unprecedented amount of ease while processing transactions from home. The manual entrance of card data will no longer be required, and thusly cached data in a browser will no longer be a weakness to be exploited by hackers, nor will key stroke loggers. Should this prove to be effective, yet another obstacle to online enterprise will be circumvented. Truly, this is great news for online businesses everywhere.

Fact and Myth: the Don Not Call List

No one enjoys having their dinner interrupted by a sales call, and the advent of the internet has done nothing to lower the access to phone numbers provided to auto-dialers. But the DNC list can be quite helpful in maintaining the peacefulness of your home. However, there is some confusion on who exactly is protected from whom. What numbers need to be registered? What are the qualifications of “telephone solicitations” for the Do Not Call list? How long will I be protected for? Hopefully this can help clear up some of the confusion.

There appears to be a bit of debate on what exactly defines a company as telemarketing. An example of this would be companies polling for political organizations – these calls do not fall under the heading of "solicitation." Nor, as an example, would calls requesting funding or donations for a company that is strictly not for profit. Even in this instance, a company must ONLY place calls in a not for profit setting to qualify to pass this restriction. There are even restrictions on calls from a company with an existing history with the consumer; if your last transaction was not within the last eighteen months, you are not permitted to call.

Possibly the most confusing aspect though is whether or not your phone number is eligible to be placed on the Do Not Call list. For example, there is no database of US cell phone numbers, and it has always been illegal for solicitation calls to be placed to cell phones. Because of that, there is no need to list a cell phone number on the Do Not Call list. Another misconception is that you can place a business number on the DNC list; All business to business calls are permitted for telephone solicitation. So registering your company’s number on the DNC list will not prevent B2B telemarketing.

Upon registering for the DNC list, your number will be protected for five years. After that, it is up to you to ensure that your number is relisted.

Durbin Amendment: A Compromise

The Durbin Amendment passed last week with a significant relaxation of the originally imposed $0.12 “swipe cap.” The final version involves up to a $0.21 cap, with a possible extension of 0.05% percent of the item value.

This alteration seems to have left both sides of the debate in a state of grudging acceptance. However, it is assumed that this cap will allow a wealth shift from banks to merchant processing. This should allow for greater competition, and in turn, a better outcome for consumers. It should be noted that although this is in some cases a 50% reduction of swipe costs to merchants, that investors’ confidence in banks’ ability to make profit does not appear to have been negatively impacted; bank share values have increased since the bill's completion. Prepaid debit cards have also been exempted from the fee cap; Some governmental subsidies make use of them and it was feared that a cap may cause banks to do away with them all together. A push in the sales of prepaid debit cards is thus expected.

However, this cap should allow small businesses some breathing room from the increasing hikes in process charge rates. As the middle men between consumers who feel that they pay too much, and banks who say they’re not paying enough, this cap reduces some of the strain of finding fair ground between them.

For more information on the Durbin Amendment, see: http://www.banktech.com/regulation-compliance/231000785

Heifer International is a Great Cause...

Thanks to The Phoenix Business Journal for spotlighting our work with Heifer International! http://bit.ly/kaNXxL in "Valley Benefits for Week of June 3." We hope that this helps bring awareness to this fabulous organization! For more info, visit heifer.org.

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