After a soft launch for some ISV clients late in the first quarter, the service became available broadly this week, so all ISVs working with Fiserv can turn on this capability for their merchant clients, a Fiserv spokesperson said. 

Fiserv works with about 1,000 ISVs, the spokesperson said. In the competitive merchant services market, the company continues to pursue offerings that can add value for partners, Halpern said during an interview at the Electronic Transactions Association’s Transact conference in Atlanta last week.

Fiserv is constantly evaluating, “how do we provide more of a sticky offering for our partners and our clients?” Halpern said. Fiserv acquired a company Halpern cofounded, Pittsburgh-based Pineapple Payments, in 2021. Pineapple Payments offers payment processing, technology and omni-channel payment acceptance to ISVs and small- and medium-sized businesses.

The new service marks the first time Fiserv is offering merchants text-to-pay capabilities, the spokesperson said. Digital payments company Stripe as well as Block’s merchant business Square already offer their merchant clients the ability to text customers to secure payment, according to spokespeople for both companies.

Fiserv had received feedback that its software partners were looking for text-to-pay capabilities, and that was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, Halpern said. COVID accelerated people “looking for more contactless ways to make payments,” he said. Authvia’s integration with a Fiserv gateway means ISVs can link payment processing to the text-to-pay technology. 

The payment option holds appeal on the merchant side, too. Text messages are opened faster than emails containing invoices, which can mean merchants get paid sooner, Fiserv spokespeople noted. The text message payment capability is “just another method to get more payment flows,” Halpern said.

By Caitlin Mullen on May 2, 2023
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