Merchant services are riding a wave of innovation. For many years, the broadest distribution channel for merchant services was the independent sales agent. Merchants relied on their personal relationship with agents for competitive pricing and local customer service.  

Now there is a new trend where merchants are starting to value technology over the traditional merchant-vendor relationship. The sales agent relationship is still very important, but the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated consumer demand for omni-channel payment facilitation. Access to technology is now a key piece of any payment solution sales agents might offer merchants. 

To learn more about changes in the payments industry and how the APEX technology suite from Agile Financial Services provides omni-channel merchant services, PaymentsJournal sat down with Dustin Siner, Chief Revenue Officer at Agile Financial Services (AFS), and Don Apgar, Director of Merchant Advisory Services Practice at Mercator Advisory Group. 

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Transforming the payments industry into a service-centric space 

Back in 2017 when it was first founded, AFS was called Rev19. “Rev19 was an independent sales organization whose mission was to transform the payments industry into a transparent service-centric space,” said Siner.  

At the time, the industry was fraught with sales organizations looking to reap rewards through unethical rate hikes and cost-cutting by offshoring service centers. Rev19 wanted to ensure it was aligned with best-of-breed legacy technologies and a sales model designed to deliver quality service at a fair price. 

After four years of 60-70% year-on-year growth and with an established network of several hundred independent agents, Rev19 rebranded as Agile Financial Systems in...