Merchant Account Glossary:

ISO Definition

Merchant Account ISO Explained:

What is an ISO? “ISO” stands for “Independent Sales Organization” and is a formal designation that a company must have in order to sell Visa credit card processing services under its own company name. Visa displays its registered and approved ISOs on the Visa ISO List. In many cases, sales organizations operate as “ISOs” under a Visa-approved ISO in a sales partnership. In these cases the sales organization may have its own company name, but it sells merchant accounts branded under the actual Visa-approved ISO.

Visa-approved ISOs represent an Acquiring Bank, or Processor, or both. ISOs are also allowed to set terms of their own merchant account contracts and mark up processing rates and fees. Although a Processor can also be an ISO, most ISOs are solely sales organizations that act as “middle men” that market point-of-sale solutions (terminals, payment gateways, mobile accessories, etc.) and pair them with acquirers and processors.

MasterCard has a similar designation called an MSP.

ISO Video Explanation

Use of this video does not constitute an endorsement of any kind by CardPaymentOptions.com.

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Phillip Parker is a Payments Industry Analyst and creator of this blog, CardPaymentOptions.com. Phillip is passionate about researching merchant service providers and payment industry trends. He is often quoted as an expert source in national publications such as INC Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Entrepreneur, and many others.

“I started this blog because I was disgusted by the business practices of the merchant services industry. I wanted to empower business owners by providing insight on how to avoid shady merchant account providers and costly credit card processing mistakes.”

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