ACH Federal LLC, an automated clearing house payments processor, will refer merchants that want credit and debit card transaction processing services to PDX Enterprise Solutions, a Portland, Ore., independent sales organization.
The agreement announced July 28 is the first to result from a referral program ACH Federal disclosed earlier this year that lets ISOs share revenue generated by referred merchants that sign up with the Chattanooga, Tenn., processor.
The PDX deal also involves ACH Federal referring merchants to the ISO.
"Anytime their clients or leads ask about merchant services, they will refer that lead to us," Michael Hass, PDX's president and chief executive, said in an interview. Nonprofit organizations are some of the first ACH Federal merchants to get a PDX merchant account, Hass said.
He would not share details about the revenue-sharing arrangement.
Typically, ISOs value referral agreements because they can lower the cost of acquiring a merchant. Also, the potential merchant already has a trusted relationship with the referring company, so the ISO eliminates a potential cold call.
The deal between ACH Federal and PDX was the result of a referral, ACH Federal said.
"PDX was seeking an ACH partner for a high-profile account. They were referred to us via a very trusted source," an ACH Federal representative said. "As the demand began to grow for a unified payments platform for both ACH and merchant services, we solicited PDX to become our partner."
