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Inspiration




                                   Staying resilient in an


                                era of climate disruption
































                     eather is no longer predictable. Wildfires   their usual office is inaccessible. A wallet card with key
                     erupt in places they didn’t before.         contacts, including payment support, can be surprisingly
                     Torrential rains overwhelm drainage sys-    useful when digital access is down.
        W tems. Hurricanes strengthen faster and
        strike outside the traditional season. For those of us in   Stay calm
        payments, these shifts are more than headlines—they’re   Beyond tech, it’s about mindset. Encouraging calm,
        real, operational threats to our businesses and those of   flexible thinking helps people respond instead of react.
        our merchant clients.                                    For example, during a wildfire, that might mean rerouting

        Be prepared                                              support teams or shifting merchant communications to
                                                                 unaffected areas. For merchants, it could mean creating
        The good news? Preparedness doesn’t require panic—just   signage  explaining  temporary changes  in  payment
        forethought and follow-through.                          acceptance or inventory delays due to disrupted supply
        Start with continuity. Every payments business, from     chains.
        ISOs to gateway providers, should have a simple but clear
        emergency operations plan.                               Inspire confidence
                                                                 As payment professionals, we are uniquely positioned
        This includes redundant communications, remote access    to foster resilience. By equipping ourselves—and our
        capabilities and cloud backups for critical systems. Regular   merchants—with simple tools and strategies today, we
        drills, even if brief, can reveal gaps before a disaster does.  can help businesses not only survive the next emergency
        Support merchants                                        but come back stronger.

        For merchant-facing teams, now is a great time to revisit   We can’t control the weather. But we can meet its
        client check-ins. Ask your merchants: If the power went   challenges with steadiness, clarity, and a commitment to
        out today, could  they still accept  payments? Encourage   serve—rain or shine.
        them to adopt mobile or battery-powered POS options,
        cloud-based management tools. Also suggest they ensure
        their payment processing provider offers automatic
        offline capture.

        Likewise,  advise merchants  to  securely  store paper
        records or digitize them if they haven't already. And
        make sure they know how to contact support—even if                        Kate Gillespie, President and CEO


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