Constant traffic. Business cards exchanged. Engaging discussions on the most important issues facing the payments industry. It was another full day of meetings and seminars at the Western States Acquirers Association (WSAA) Conference.
Midway through day two, we encountered a good sign: the Instabill booth was running low on chachkis — our sticky wallets that adhere to mobile phones and our pens proved very popular. Even better, we left with about 1/3 of the business cards we brought.
Was the WSAA Conference a success? The real work begins after the conference, but all signs are pointing to yes.
A recap of the day:
The ETA: The Consummate Advocate for the Payments Industry
Thursday opened with Electronic Transactions Association CEO Jason Oxman cramming the many payments-related issues into an hour — arguably the best hour of the WSAA Conference. Among his points:
Operation Choke Point is not going away. In the Q&A following his presentation, I asked Mr. Oxman what his best advice was for payment processors. His reply was simple and direct: Reading the ETA Guidelines on Merchant and ISO Underwriting and Risk Monitoring, written for high risk payment processors, by high risk payment processors.
Data Breach Notification: There are 47 states with data breach notification laws, and they’re all different. The ETA has written a standard protocol for all 50 states, currently being mulled by members of the House of Representatives.
EMV: The U.S. needs to get this right. The use of chip and signature is less secure than chip and pin. The U.S. needs chip and pin.
Alternative Lending: The New Value Add-On?
Yesterday we blogged about some of the talking points of day one, and the issue that stood out to us was alternative lending. Within the first hours of visits to our booth, we had several inquiries about alternative lending and lending options for businesses, as opposed to going to a bank. At the very moment, business lending is not on the Instabill menu — but it’s got us thinking. Perhaps a year from now, this will be an option for merchants.
Another WSAA Conference Theme: Account Updater
Account Updater, when a consumer’s credit card information is automatically updated for seamless recurring billing, was discussed in two seminars today. More consumers are expected to embrace it.
Who Will Embrace Same-Day ACH?
We blogged about same day ACH a few weeks ago. According to panelist John Curtis of WesPay, billing, subscription and collections merchants are going to love it.
Stay in Touch With Instabill
As Instabill blogs regularly on the issues that face the payments industry, we also publish a comprehensive newsletter on the first of each month. We not only offer first class merchant services, we pride ourselves on informing our network of merchants and partners on cutting edge issues.
