5 Questions for Financial Institutions to Ask Before Choosing a Merchant-Services Partner

For financial institutions of all sizes, merchant services has evolved from a convenience offering into a strategic growth initiative.

Done well, merchant services can help drive non-interest income, deepen commercial relationships, increase deposit balances, improve business-client retention, and create opportunities for additional products and services.

Many financial institutions continue to evaluate merchant-services vendors primarily on size and revenue-share economics. While these matter, they don’t tell the full story.

The right merchant-services partner can do a lot more for you and your business clients than process transactions. They should be an extension of the treasury management arsenal and help your institution grow, engage bankers, support business clients, and create measurable value across the organization.

Before selecting or reevaluating a merchant-services partner, consider these five questions.

1. Will You Help Us Achieve Our Strategic Goals?

The strongest programs contribute directly to broader institutional objectives, including:

• Non-interest income growth
• Commercial deposit growth
• Business-client retention
• New client acquisition
• Banker engagement
• Treasury-management expansion

Unfortunately, some merchant-services providers focus primarily on processing volume (their own internal metric) rather than helping financial institutions achieve these outcomes.

Ask potential partners:

• How do you help financial institutions grow fee income?
• How do you support deposit growth?
• What strategies do you use to increase merchant penetration?
• How can you help drive new business acquisition?
• How do you measure program success?

A true partner should be able to connect merchant-services performance directly to your institution’s growth objectives.

2. How Will You Engage and Support Our Bankers?

Even the strongest merchant-services offering can’t grow without banker participation.

Frontline bankers, relationship managers, and commercial teams are often the primary source of merchant-services opportunities. If they aren't engaged, the program’s growth, and the strategic benefits your institution should reap from it, will be limited.

Ask prospective partners:

• What training do you provide?
• How often do you conduct banker education?
• What sales tools and resources are available?
• How do you encourage referral activity?
• How can you help increase banker participation?

The best merchant-services programs create a culture of engagement throughout your financial institution rather than relying on a small group of referral champions.

3. What Reporting and Visibility Will We Receive?

One of the most common frustrations financial institutions experience is limited visibility into program performance.

If your institution’s leadership can’t clearly see what's working and what’s not, merchant services becomes a black box. You’re forced to make vague assumptions rather than strategically measure benchmarks.

Ask providers:

• What reports are available?
• How frequently are results shared?
• Can we track referral activity?
• Can we monitor merchant penetration and attrition?
• How do you help us benchmark performance?

The strongest partners provide reporting that supports decision-making, accountability, and strategic planning, not simply monthly processing summaries.

4. How Do You Support Our Business Clients?

Your merchant-services partner ultimately becomes an extension of your institution's commercial banking experience. When merchants have questions, need support, or encounter issues, the quality of that experience directly reflects on your institution.

Ask questions such as:

• What merchant onboarding support is available?
• How quickly are merchants activated (approved, online, and processing)?
• What support channels do merchants receive?
• How are issues escalated?
• What modern technologies and solutions do you offer as client needs evolve?

A positive merchant experience can strengthen client relationships and loyalty. A poor one can put them at risk.

5. How Will This Partnership Grow With Us?

The merchant-services industry continues to evolve rapidly.

Today’s business clients expect not only payment processing but integrated payments, ecommerce capabilities, mobile acceptance, automation tools, and industry-specific solutions. The partner that meets your needs today has to be able to support your needs tomorrow, which means an ongoing payment consultant approach. Ask prospective providers:

• What does your technology roadmap look like?
• How do you support emerging payment technologies?
• Can you support specialized industries and verticals?
• How do you help institutions increase merchant adoption over time?
• What investments are you making in innovation?

A long-term merchant-services partnership should position your institution for future growth, not simply fill immediate needs.

Choosing the Right Partner

Merchant services can be one of the most powerful growth engines available to financial institutions. But success depends heavily on choosing the right partner.

The best merchant-services providers understand that they must do a lot more than process payments. They are there to help financial institutions grow revenue, deepen business relationships, engage bankers, improve reporting visibility, and create better experiences for commercial clients.

Before selecting a provider, ask these five questions. The answers will tell you far more about the potential success of your merchant-services program than revenue share alone.

Is Your Merchant-Services Partner Pulling Their Weight?

If you're evaluating your current program, now is a good time to assess whether your merchant-services partner is helping your institution achieve its full potential.

A merchant-services review can help identify opportunities to improve performance, increase merchant adoption, strengthen banker engagement, and drive additional fee income and deposits. Use our Merchant-Services Provider Evaluation Checklist to help you get started.