Wells Fargo Adds Amex OptBlue for Small Merchants

Wells Fargo Bank NA has joined a growing list of acquirers using an American Express program designed to help smaller merchants accept Amex card payments.

The OptBlue program allows acquirers to establish competitive pricing for merchants with a projected American Express charge volume of less than $1 million per year.

After months of testing, American Express went live in May with the OptBlue program, landing JetPay Payment Services as an early acquirer.

That month, Amex also brought Vantiv, Global Payments, Heartland Payment Systems, Worldpay and Transfirst into the OptBlue fold.

Wells Fargo now has the flexibility to provide the benefit of a single statement, one settlement process, and one contact for all the major card brands to its merchants, American Express stated in a press release.

“OptBlue is an important facet of our ongoing commitment to enhance the U.S. small merchant experience and the addition of Wells Fargo will allow the American Express card to become more accessible to an even greater number of small merchants nationwide,” said Ed Jay, Amex's executive vice president of merchant services/Americas, in the release.

The addition of Wells Fargo brings the number of participating acquirers in OptBlue to 12, six of which are in the top 10 in the U.S., American Express said.