Earning Trust in the Payment Ecosystem: What Financial Institutions Should Look for in a Merchant-Services Provider

In financial services, reputation and reliability are everything. Just like your bank, the companies you consider referring your business clients to for merchant services have to earn your trust. After all, they, too, handle your clients’ money, and their systems must be professional, secure, cost-effective, and well-supported.

But how does a merchant-services company establish a good reputation? Until you’ve worked with them for a while, how can you tell which companies will provide excellent products and services, and treat both you and your clients like valued partners? Here are the key attributes to look for as you determine which merchant-services partners to align with.

✅ Longevity

When it comes to building a rock-solid financial business, there’s no substitute for experience. Look for decades, not years, in the industry. The newest fintech companies may look snazzy, but as you know, behind-the-scenes processes in the financial world are complex, and more established companies have tested systems in place to successfully navigate the complexity.

Another way to look at it is that longevity is a shorthand for institutional knowledge, regulatory expertise, and experience with market cycles. If a merchant-services company has been around for a while, they’ve weathered waves of changing payments regulations as well as recessions, inflationary cycles, and shifts in consumer spending. They’ve passed the tests and proven their resilience.

Ask about: Years in business, geographic regions covered

✅ Product Suite

You want the best for your business clients. When it comes to merchant-services products, you want them to have access to a range of affordable payment systems and tools that fit their operations like a glove, making them more efficient and profitable.

Payment processing is just one small piece of the puzzle. A comprehensive product suite includes smart terminals and POS systems, contactless technology, digital wallet and ACH acceptance, mobile payments, omnicommerce capabilities, next-day and split funding, accounting software integrations, reporting tools, features for field- and professional- services businesses like payment links and recurring billing, and much more.

A strong merchant-services partner is also skilled at serving the full range of business types, such as restaurants, retailers, and healthcare. Each sector has its own unique payments needs, and this requires them to have not only broad verticals expertise, but also tailored products to match.

Ask about: Product breadth, verticals products, channel support, value-adds like funding options and cost-saving programs

✅ Merchant Experience

Ultimately, your business clients are the proving ground for your merchant-services partner. How satisfied are merchants with their products and service? That will be the key question.

Transparent pricing is one up-front must-have. Red flags are hidden fees and confusing contracts. Learn about the partner’s pricing and fees before referring a client. If the financial terms seem unclear or misleading to you, they probably will to your client, too.

Another early, critical facet of the merchant experience is onboarding. The application process, underwriting, approval, account setup, and initial activation should be fast and simple. You want your clients to be up and running with their new systems in no time.

And never underestimate the importance of excellent customer support. A merchant- services partner that truly prioritizes taking good care of merchants will have an in-house support team, short wait times, and extended service hours. In the long run, this may be the biggest merchant-services key to happy business clients.

Ask about: Number of merchant clients and retention rate

✅ Risk Management

As a banker, you’re well aware of the risks of financial errors and fraud. Your merchant- services partner of choice will be handling your business clients’ money—and their customers’ financial data and funds, as well—so it’s absolutely nonnegotiable that they have ironclad systems in place to safeguard money and data.

Real-time fraud detection tools, chargeback management, tokenization and encryption, and compliance and regulatory adherence matter to merchants—even if they’re not fully conversant in these terms and protocols. You can help by ensuring that your merchant- services partner “owns” the risk-management scope as much as possible.

Ask about: PCI DSS compliance level, chargeback ratio, dispute assistance

✅ Data and Reporting

As you begin to refer business clients to your merchant-services partner, you’ll find that good ongoing data and reporting are essential to helping you keep up with the health of your clients’ operations. Your merchant-services partner should provide you with clear portfolio-level reporting each month, and should also be readily available to answer any questions you may have about your client data.

Your merchants should be happy with their payments reporting and data access, too. Things like clear settlement visibility, granular transaction details, and cash-flow insights help them run their businesses day to day and make longer-term strategic decisions as well.

Ask about: Reporting processes, data access methods, timeliness (real-time, next-day, monthly)

✅ Partnership Mentality

To the best merchant-services partners, you’re not just a referral source—you’re a long- term strategic ally. That means they understand the value of investing in the relationship, your education, and your growth.

In a true partnership, everyone wins. Mutual success is the only success.

Good merchant-services partners establish a dedicated contact for you—a Partner Manager who is not only available to you at all times but who reaches out proactively and arranges educational opportunities for you and your colleagues. Your merchant-services partner should also provide co-branded marketing and be a source of non-interest revenue.

Of course, in addition to direct benefits from your merchant-services partner, over time you should also notice that you are receiving invaluable indirect benefits. These include enhanced client retention, more word-of-mouth referrals, a competitive advantage among area banks, and higher likelihood of cross-selling opportunities for services like payroll, lending, and more.

Ask about: Partnership-program benefits, Partner Manager expectations

Why Payroc

Merchant services are an important piece of the banking puzzle. Your business clients rely on your expertise to make good recommendations for POS and payments products and services. The payments partner who passes muster and earns your trust will be an essential ally and growth engine for years to come.

Payroc is a leading global payments company that has partnered with financial institutions since 2003 and serves over 190,000 merchants. We offer a comprehensive product lineup, POS and payment-system recommendations personalized to each merchant, and award-winning support for both our FI partners and merchants.

To learn more about Payroc’s merchant-services program, connect with me by selecting “Get started” here.