| pendent Sales Organization (ISO) is a company that | | | | approval, the applicants must pay registration fees of |
| is authorized by Visa to provide merchants with card | | | | $5,000 for each Credit Card Network. Every year |
| payment processing services. Its MasterCard | | | | thereafter, ISOs and MSPs have their licenses |
| equivalent is the Member Service Provider (MSP). The | | | | reviewed and additional fees of $2,500 per network |
| ISOs and MSPs are not banks but they have to be | | | | are due upon approval. |
| sponsored by a processing bank, member of Visa | | | | Both ISOs and MSPs can sign up sales agents to help |
| and/or MasterCard, in order to be licensed by the | | | | them sign new merchants. The sales agents can only |
| Credit Card Associations. Processing banks can also | | | | introduce themselves as representatives of their ISO |
| perform the job of an ISO or MSP but they rarely do | | | | and/or MSP and cannot advertise their own business |
| so and prefer to concentrate on issuing credit cards | | | | name as a card payment processing provider. The |
| and acquiring of electronic payment transactions from | | | | ISOs and MSPs must register their sales agents with |
| the merchants that their ISOs and MSPs sign up. | | | | the Associations. |
| The ISO registration process is very stringent and | | | | Each ISO and MSP must display the name of their |
| can take a while. Besides having a bank as a sponsor, | | | | sponsoring bank on all marketing and promotional |
| the ISOs and MSPs have to prove that they are | | | | materials as well as on every page on their websites. |
| financially capable to perform their duties. In addition, | | | | On websites the name of the sponsoring bank can |
| every principal has their credit history checked and | | | | usually be found at the bottom of each page and it |
| evaluated to ensure that he or she is responsible | | | | typically looks like this: |
| with credit and has a positive net worth. Business | | | | © 2008, UniBul Merchant Services LLC. |
| financial statements need to be presented, as well as | | | | UniBul Merchant Services LLC is a registered ISO/MSP |
| personal tax returns for the principals. The applicant is | | | | of JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. |
| also required to submit a detailed business plan. Upon | | | | |