Mercator: Acquirers need to develop value added services

PaymentsNews reported yesterday on a Mercator report titled,"Merchant Acquiring in the United States 2008: Birth of the perfect storm".

Pressure on merchant acquirers has always been strong, but things are expected to get worse. Mercator encourages acquirers to protect their businesses by focusing on value-added services leveraging payment data, among other things.

"Diversification of merchant services business models and emphasis on ancillary revenue streams generated by value-added services, fee revenue on non-bankcard payment processing, and new ways in which acquirers can leverage their data will all be necessary for continued market performance. Payments savvy merchants, who understand that the electronification of payments and the systems that support them are tools that can be used to optimize business, are after providers that can help them achieve that optimization."

Sounds a great deal like PIVAS (Payment Information Value Added Services) promoted by Gartner.

What do you think? This calls for a very different mindset from that of cutting costs. Are acquirers in your country able to think differently and develop new services to boost revenues?