New day, new chapter for iPayment

Recent events at iPayment Inc. reflect a fresh start for the payment processing brand, which was established in 1999. In addition to closing a comprehensive refinancing package April 11, 2017, senior management introduced a series of initiatives designed to reinvigorate the Westlake Village, Calif.-based company following recent setbacks. As they prepare for the upcoming partner conference in May 2017, employees and partners say they are looking ahead to a bright future.

"For the past four years, iPayment has dealt with too much debt, internal turmoil and external news as former managers were indicted for securities fraud," said O.B. Rawls IV, Chief Executive Officer and President of iPayment Inc. "With that history behind us, we're looking forward again, with a strong management team, decreased debt and a leverage ratio on par with other Super ISOs."

Refreshed outlook, identity

iPayment Chief Financial Officer Robert Purcell stated, "It truly does feel like a new company with a renewed focus on delivering value to empower our employees, with a new cadence of operating and a customer-first perspective. We plan to supplement this with strategic acquisitions to give us more breadth and depth and increase our skill and distribution base."

A new corporate website, launched April 13, highlights iPayment's suite of partner programs, commerce enablement solutions and internal career opportunities. Jenn Reichenbacher, Vice President, Marketing at iPayment, said the changes are more than cosmetic; they represent the company's new culture, expanded capabilities and vertical market growth.

"We've introduced numerous business management solutions and value-added services for our merchant customers and we've developed and launched several key enablement tools, all of which we want to showcase," she stated. "Our new site provides us with that platform, and it represents who iPayment is today."

Three-pronged strategy, focus

Rawls and Purcell intend to focus on iPayment's core competencies and the company's three main business lines throughout the short-term and long-term restructuring:

• ISO Channel: Denise Tahali, iPayment Senior Vice President ISO and Agent Direct Sales Leader and former First Data Corp. executive, will lead business development for iPayment ISOs and agents and grow the traditional side of the company's business.

• ISV Channel: Greg Castro, iPayment Vice President Business Development and former Mercury Payment Systems executive, will cultivate the company's relationships with independent software vendors and technology companies, to expand iPayment's distribution channel and enable partners to leverage the company's capabilities, integrations and reporting tools.

• Direct Sales: Mark D'Ambrosio, iPayment Senior Vice President of Direct Sales, will lead the company's direct sales division. The industry veteran and former Director of Sales for Flagship Merchant Services has trained and managed sales teams and used advanced analytics to optimize employee performance.

Building a strong future

iPayment's 17th annual Partner Conference will be held May 24 to 25, 2017 in West South Beach, Fla. The event, themed Focus on the Future, will feature Jason Oxman, CEO of the Electronic Transactions Association and a keynote address by Mike Piazza, a 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee and Chairman of the Advisory Board at Company.com.

"The show will highlight industry trends, our product showcase and numerous partners," Rawls said. "We really appreciate the support of ETA and our supplier partners, including Company.com, who is sponsoring Mr. Piazza's keynote, American Express, Verifone, First Data/Clover and many others."

Rawls and Purcell reaffirmed the company's commitment to deliver relevant, fruitful, transparent solutions and services designed to help employees, merchants and partners prosper. "Our new leadership team are among the most talented people in this business, who will continue to preserve the balance of our traditional, ISV partner and direct sales channels," Purcell stated.

iPayment has historically focused on small business enablement and serves more than 140,000 small and midsize merchants. "The 450 people who come to work every day care about the firm and care about each other," Rawls added. "It's nice to be able to give them a good place to work."

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