A colleague emailed information about an upcoming conference that mentioned PSD2. I'm new to the industry. Is this something I need to be concerned with? I'm flooded with new terms right now and don't want to bother with things that don't matter much to building a portfolio that will bring me residuals from satisfied merchants far into the future. I just boarded my first three accounts this week, so I'm stoked.
Judith Bayles, Merchant Level Salesperson
Judith,
You've asked an excellent question. As you're experiencing right now, when you enter the payments industry, there is a steep learning curve. However, it sounds like the people you are working with have helped you see beyond just making quick sales to establishing a viable, long-term business, which is essential.
As a source of truly relevant information, regional acquirers meetings are immensely helpful. They are organized with the industry's feet on the street in mind. Coming up are the Midwest Acquirers Association show, July 26 to 28, 2016, in Cleveland, and the Western States Acquirers Association show, Sept. 14 to 15, in Scottsdale, Ariz. For more information, see www.greensheet.com/datebook.php?flag=display_chart.
As for PSD2, it stands for the second version of the European Union's Directive on Payment Services. Christoph Tutsch provided a brief explanation of PSD2 in "From EMV to CNP: A look into U.S. authentication," The Green Sheet, April 25, 2016, issue 16:04:02.
He wrote, "The European Commission (EC) recently released the revised EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which seeks to regulate payment services and is binding in all EU member states. PSD2 requires all payment service providers to carry out 'strong customer authentication' (multifactor authentication) before accepting online transactions, as reported by the European Banking Authority in 2014."
Find out what your ISO and processor have in place to address the applicable laws, because they will matter to you if you court merchants doing business internationally.
Congratulations on your first three merchants. May they be your loyal customers for many years to come.
Editor
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