ECX In The House

Internet payment services provider E-Commerce Exchange (ECX) has brought all the credit card processing functions it previously outsourced to third party processors in-house. The move enables the company to better ensure quality control and keep its services competitively priced.

By in-sourcing its credit card transaction services, ECX will oversee the underwriting and approval of all merchant accounts. In addition, the company will oversee risk management and provide all customer support and services. This is the company’s last step in its efforts to bring all the essential services in-house. As another part of this effort, ECX began designing, building and hosting merchant Web sites in-house late last year.

“The move to in-source these services further underscores ECX’s overall strategy to better serve our customers,” said Mike Fisher, executive vice president, E-Commerce Exchange. “By bringing these services in-house, we are able to better monitor them and ensure the quality of service our customers are receiving. In this business, it is all about the customer, and ECX is doing all it can to best service our clients.”

ECX now assumes risk management for its customers’ merchant accounts, a service previously handled by a third party provider. In addition to being responsible for all account activity, the company is now charged with identifying merchants who are considered high risk, and setting up an appropriate monitoring system. By monitoring merchant activity and ensuring that only authorized transactions are processed, ECX is protecting both merchants and credit card users from fraud.

Since its inception, ECX has provided credit card processing services to more than 80,000 small and home-based businesses, which are often considered “high risk” by other organizations. “Because of our long experience in serving new, small and non-traditional businesses, ECX looks to the vast opportunity that exists in the risk and believes that this so-called risk is most often outweighed by the rewards,” added Fisher.

As most Green Sheet readers know, originally banks were the only organizations that could offer merchant accounts and services. Today, ISOs, such as ECX, can offer these services when working with a Visa/MasterCard member bank. In the case of ECX, the member bank still handles transfer of funds for the transactions processed; however, ECX will be responsible for the other services to the customer. This includes establishing a merchant account for the customer, transferring and monitoring all funds and all customer support and services.

ECX works with two Visa and MasterCard member banks, the First Bank of Beverly Hills and Minotola National Bank, to provide funds from transactions to its customers. The company will also continue its relationship with First Data Corporation, the nation’s leading transaction processing service provider, for all transaction-related data processing.

ECX has more than a dozen affiliated offices and nearly 150 employees nationwide. ECX focuses on markets not traditionally served by banks and other business-to-business e-commerce service providers, including small and home-based businesses, business owners with limited credit, and others considered non-conventional, and therefore high-risk, by banks. For more information call (800) 748-6318 or visit www.ecx.com.

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