Just In Time For Christmas
Primary Payment Systems Inc., a for profit consortium of banks offering closed account and other checking status information to retailers, Check Verification and Check Guarantee Companies, has come up with a new program just in time for Christmas.
In a Mid-September 1996 mailing, Primary Payment describes the new "Enhancement," as follows:
"This enhancement signals a slight change in the future direction of Primary Payments. That is to move away from status's (i.e. account closed) to the percentage of probability that an item will be returned, without regard to status. A tremendous breakthrough that takes a lot of pressure out of decisions!"
TeleCheck, Equifax Check Service, and SCAN jointly announced in the beginning of 1996 that they would be acquiring closed account information from Primary Payment, and using this "Bank Status" information to turn down checks.
Since merchants want more sales, not more declines, this new information of yet additional ways to decline checks doesn't seem like good news for retailing.
