Intelligent routing – Are you maximizing Durbin?

There is no greater lighting rod in the payments space. Whether you herald it as a protector of retailers’ rights or complain that it is the ultimate government overreach, the Durbin Amendment is here to stay….for now. So how do you make it work for you, no matter your opinion? I would suggest you look at the provisions for routing.

As you know the Durbin Amendment requires that each debit card must provide routing through at least two unaffiliated networks. So now merchants have the right to route transactions to lower cost networks. But how do they take advantage of this opportunity?

Some large retailers with the resources may build out an in-house solution to process debit card payments in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible. Or they can demand that their POS provider or merchant acquirer create a custom solution for them. But where does that leave the small to medium size business?

Most providers have little incentive to bring these options to their clients. They are often reluctant to do so because they are receiving interchange and other fees from the networks/ associations to route activity to them. They realize that there would be significant revenue reductions from shifting their debit card processing volume from the Visa/MC networks to the true debit/EFT networks.

Luckily there are more and more fintech companies that are dedicated to addressing the opportunity that intelligent routing represents. They provide merchants with innovative tools to help them reduce payment costs, accelerate settlement, and increase security. And the change is transparent. The consumer has the same look and feel as before, the routing happens behind the scenes.

So if you are interested in improving profits, identifying cost reduction through intelligently routing transactions and minimizing risk we can help. Book a Payments Discussion at https://www.paymentexecutive.com/book-online