Protecting the Promise: A Payment Processing Blog

Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work. – Thomas Edison

Last week I had the pleasure of attending empoWer’s panel discussion on “Building a Successful Business: Women Entrepreneurs,” hosted by Moss Adams, Davis Wright Tremaine and US Bank. The event brought together a panel of outstanding women entrepreneurs – Mimi Kirsch of Paradigm Communications Group, Helena Park of Fisherman’s Finest, Inc., Christina Lomasney of Modumetal Inc., and Meracord’s own Linda Remsberg. 

Virtual currencies are certainly getting a lot of media attention lately. Coverage ranges from the significant attention they are receiving from investors, to Federal actions related to money laundering or lack of licensing, to how state banking regulators are responding.

We want to be compliant.

We're very, very serious about doing this the right way, including ... heavy investment in security and compliance.

We continue to invest in [compliance].

If you've read many of the posts on this blog, you might think the statements above are the ones we're using to describe Meracord. But, they didn't come from us. These are the kind of comments we're hearing every day from companies approaching us to learn about our services. 

Regulations regarding money transmission have changed dramatically in the last year or so. Previously, only transactions that facilitated money transmission and storage were regulated and now regulations cover any instrument or transaction that has a value, including virtual currency.

As a result, any corporation that provides gift cards, loyalty programs or virtually anything that stores a value may be considered a Money Transmitter requiring registration with the Department of Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and state level money transmission licensing where they operate. What this adds up to is a lot of “stuff” that doesn’t enhance the value of a product or service in the marketplace. 

Last week I started talking about Meracord’s values focusing on “We always do things right.” This week I’ve been thinking a lot about another one – “We bring trust into people’s lives.” 

We believe that Meracord can help bring trust into people’s lives by providing compliant payment services that protect financial promises between consumers and financial service providers.  

My last post talked about Sales and Meracord’s sales process. Now I want to zoom in and talk about one critical piece of that process – “KYC” (Know Your Customer). Some call it due diligence, we call it Certification.

Sales is the engine of business. It is what pulls the business to where it is going. Marketing does the steering and Operations is the heart, but I'll talk about that later...

My career has focused on sales. I love everything about it; the challenge, the people, the systems, the wins and even the losses (no, not really. I don't like losing). 

Margaret Thatcher was a hero for women.  For years, I have admired her principles and courage and looked to her for inspiration.  She came into her position at a time when few women would have tried to do what she did, let alone been accepted. 

The American Conference Institute’s Emerging Payment Systems conference last week was abuzz with the news of FinCEN’s new guidance on virtual currency. The guidance came out last Monday and applies money-laundering rules to “virtual currencies.” In a room full of people engaged in emerging payments, this led to a lot of talk about the impact this guidance will have and how the existing state regulatory systems will interact with the Federal definition.

This week I had the pleasure of attending American Conference Institute's 5th National Forum on Emerging Payment Systems in San Francisco and connecting with many smart individuals combining compliance and innovation in the payments space.