SAN FRANCISCO -- Pay By Touch is in acquisition mode. In the past month, the major provider of biometric authentication, loyalty, membership and payment solutions has made deals to acquire several rival and complementary companies, along with other agreements.
Late last week, Pay By Touch said it completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets of CardSystems Solutions Inc., an end-to-end payment processing provider with approximately 120,000 merchants to which Pay By Touch will have immediate access.
Under the terms [image-nocss] of the deal, Pay By Touch will assume responsibility for all CardSystems assets and for payment relationships with 120,000 small and medium-sized merchants. The deal was completed primarily for stock and some cash. CardSystems provides integrated payment solutions to associations, financial institutions and independent sales organizations (ISOs) and retail merchants. Through these payment solutions, CardSystems processes more than $18 billion in Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, online debit and EBT transactions annually.
"CardSystems' assets complement Pay By Touch's existing payment-related products and services and provide a ready-made path to reaching more merchants and banks to further realize our vision to change the way the world pays," said John Rogers, founder, chairman and CEO of Pay By Touch, San Francisco. "To that end, the acquisition allows us to provide a richer and more comprehensive suite of end-to-end payment processing solutions."
Several CardSystems executives have been appointed to lead Pay By Touch Payment Solutions, a newly named business unit with responsibility for the Pay By Touch payment-processing unit (formerly known as iPAY) and the new CardSystems assets.
Earlier last week, as reported in CSP Daily News, Pay By Touch said it would acquire BioPay LLC for $82 million in stock and cash. BioPay provides biometrically authenticated check cashing and biometric services to two million enrolled consumers in 42 states, with 1,600 retail implementations and more than $7 billion in transactions processed. BioPay is installed coast to coast, serving a variety of merchants from owner-operated single locations to larger chains, including grocery stores, convenience stores, gas stations, beverage stores and other lifestyle retailers.
Under the terms of the agreement, Pay By Touch expects to acquire all assets of Herndon, Va.-based BioPay, including its patent portfolio, and assume responsibility for its retail customers and enrolled members.
And in early December, Pay By Touch also said it acquired Capture Resource Inc., Bristol, Pa., a supplier of integrated reward programs and business process outsourcing solutions. The deal contributes to the growth of Pay By Touch by beefing up its customer base and adding another layer to its loyalty offering.
"Capture Resource's intellectual property, customizable loyalty programs, technology and consumer-friendly kiosks bring significant value to Pay By Touch and will help continue to grow our unique loyalty offering," Rogers said. "Together, our companies' complementary solutions and expertise will accelerate the growth of Pay By Touch and help our customers boost their bottom lines."
With this acquisition, Pay By Touch will be able to offer customers interactive gift and reward programs, customized reporting, design, production, and Web access services. In addition, retailers will enjoy advanced information capture technology, database management and more.
Under the terms of the deal, Pay By Touch will assume responsibility for all of Capture Resource's assets and will manage the company's 120 million-plus consumer loyalty enrollment profiles, including more than 12,000 supermarkets and retail institutions. In addition to increasing the Pay By Touch customer base, the acquisition brings integrated rewards solutions and business processing solutions to Pay By Touch customers, it said, especially in its core growth areas: grocery store chains, credit card issuers, healthcare providers and financial transaction processing companies.
Meanwhile, amid all of the acquisition activity, Pay By Touch and NCR Corp., Dayton, Ohio, have announced an alliance that combines both companies' hardware and software solutions to offer merchants a single point of contact for supporting their entire merchant and consumer biometric needs.
Using NCR's biometric-enabled point-of-sale (POS) solutions, retailers can use the Pay By Touch authentication and payment service, giving shoppers a convenient and secure way to pay for goods with the touch of a finger.
Under the agreement, retailers using NCR's Advanced Checkout Solution (ACS) POS software and the WinEPS solution from MTXEPS Inc. can implement the Pay By Touch services. The companies' first joint implementation is being rolled out in select grocery stores throughout the Midwest. In addition, the NCR FastLane self-checkout solution is currently "Pay By Touch Ready," and integration with other NCR solutions is underway.
Pay By Touch will also leverage an NCR self-service kiosk solution to streamline and enhance the Pay By Touch consumer enrollment process. Featuring NCR EasyPoint kiosk technology and software developed by NCR in conjunction with Pay By Touch, the kiosks increase convenience for shoppers to enroll, activate and maintain their Pay By Touch electronic wallets. Pay By Touch will offer the kiosks to its customers under a reseller agreement with NCR. The kiosks are currently being installed by a major U.S. supermarket chain.
Ultimately, the NCR and Pay By Touch alliance will help increase the adoption of consumer biometric authentication and payment processing around the world. Besides grocery retailers, the companies are developing solutions for the general merchandise retailing, food service and health care industries.
Pay By Touch's patented biometric payment products are free to consumers and enable shoppers to quickly and securely pay for purchases or cash checks using a finger scan linked to their personal identification information, financial accounts, and loyalty programs. Shoppers register once, and then can securely pay with a finger scan anywhere Pay By Touch is installed. The company offers retailers a complete payment solution, from front-end biometric authentication, age verification and check cashing to payment processing for ACH (electronic check) and debit and credit card transactions.
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