Independent sales organization (ISO)
A company that sells card acceptance services to merchants on behalf of an acquiring bank, which sponsors it with the card networks.
What an ISO is
An independent sales organization (ISO) is a third party that signs up merchants for card processing under an acquiring bank's sponsorship. Card networks such as Visa and Mastercard require the acquirer to register the ISO. The ISO markets, sells and often supports the merchant accounts it brings in.
How it works
The ISO finds and onboards merchants, then the acquiring bank approves them and settles their card sales. Each merchant gets its own merchant account. The ISO is paid residuals from processing fees, and some ISOs also share liability for merchant losses.
- 01 · SELL The ISO signs up a merchant and collects its application and documents.
- 02 · APPROVE The acquiring bank or its processor underwrites and boards the merchant.
- 03 · SUPPORT The ISO supports the merchant and earns residuals on its card volume.
When businesses use it
- Small and mid-sized merchants buying card processing through an industry specialist
- Software companies reselling payments to their clients as an ISO
- Point-of-sale and terminal providers bundling payments with hardware
- Fintechs that use acquiring BIN sponsorship to run merchant programs
Cross River offers acquiring BIN sponsorship for ISOs, PayFacs, marketplaces and independent software vendors (ISVs), with merchant payouts over same-day ACH, push-to-card, RTP and FedNow. See solutions for merchant acquirers at Cross River.