04.04.06 | Community Bankers Association of Georgia Endorses TRANSFIRST

CBA members will have access to TRANSFIRST’s flexible, customizable merchant processing programs.

DALLAS (April 4, 2006) — The Community Bankers Association of Georgia (CBA) today announced its endorsement of Dallas-based TRANSFIRST, a leading provider of credit card processing services and payment enabling technologies. Through this relationship, CBA of Georgia’s more than 300 community bank members can take advantage of TRANSFIRST’s suite of merchant processing services and fee-income generating products, including pre-paid/Stored-Value programs such as branded and non-branded gift cards. Bank members will also benefit from 24/7 in-house customer support, and the ability to offer their merchants multiple payment processing methods including Internet, ACH, batch, wireless and recurring payments.

CBA members and their merchant customers will be able to benefit from TRANSLINK, TRANSFIRST’s comprehensive online reporting system that offers 24/7 access to a variety of merchant and portfolio reports. TRANSLINK allows banks and merchants to easily and efficiently monitor important transaction reports such as sales activity, statement histories and authorization records. Because of these value-added payment processing solutions and services, CBA members can support many of their business customers’ needs in the area of payment for goods and services, helping increase market share while gaining competitive advantages.

CBA members will also be able to leverage the power of TRANSFIRST’s proprietary Web-based centralized payment processing system, TRANSACTIONCENTRAL™. With this technology, merchants are able to perform transactions 24 hours a day from any location, enabling them to experience the flexibility of multiple data entry points, multiple types of transactions and benefit from end-user efficiencies. TRANSACTION CENTRAL’s powerful suite of features allow small- and mid-size merchants to experience the functionality usually reserved for big businesses, such as customization and the ability to add new payment options as their needs evolve.

“The CBA of Georgia seeks out industry-leading companies like TRANSFIRST, which specialize in offering customized programs uniquely tailored for the needs of community bankers,” said Steve Bridges, CEO/President, CBA of Georgia. “We feel TRANSFIRST’s products and services will serve our members’ best interests by allowing those currently not offering merchant processing to do so, and helping those with merchant processing programs expand their current offerings.”

 “This endorsement provides community bank members in Georgia with a flexible, cost-effective portfolio of payment processing products and services without the need of using a competing financial institution,” said Marla Knutson president of TRANSFIRST’s Financial Institutions division. “TRANSFIRST is endorsed by more than 15 state banking associations throughout the United States, which allows us to develop transaction processing programs that will directly benefit community bankers and meet their specific needs.”

“In addition to point-of-sale credit card processing, community bank members will benefit from an array of TRANSFIRST’s product and services, including ACH and check processing, pre-paid acceptance, gift and loyalty cards, as well as state-of-the art technology such as retail-based IP equipment,” said Ryan O’Connor, president of business development for TRANSFIRST’s ISS Services division. “TRANSFIRST also offers various revenue streams to each CBA member such as aggressive revenue-share programs enabling community banks to earn income while keeping merchant rates competitive.”
           
About Community Bankers Association of Georgia
The Community Bankers Association of Georgia (CBA) is a non-profit organization serving community banks throughout Georgia for over 30 years to enhance their profitability and growth. The CBA was founded in 1969 by a group of Georgia community bankers to protect the political interests of locally owned community banks. Representing over 300 community banks and over 200 associate member companies, CBA offers services in four distinct areas which include political affairs, education, products & services and networking.

About TRANSFIRST
A premier provider of transaction processing services and payment enabling technologies, TRANSFIRST offers a first-rate suite of products and services and customized processing programs uniquely tailored for the special business needs of financial institutions, independent sales organizations and agents and its referral and reseller partners. Through its in-depth industry knowledge, partnership strategy and innovative solutions, TRANSFIRST provides a specialized approach to transaction processing for healthcare providers, public entities, online and other non-traditional merchants, as well as brick and mortar retailers.  Founded in 1995, TRANSFIRST is a market leader in strategic mergers and acquisitions, which has allowed the company to gain significant market share and world-class expertise in growing and profitable industry segments.  Built on a platform of personal service, customer commitment and flexible pricing, TRANSFIRST is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has operations facilities in Louisville, Colo., Omaha, Neb., Kansas City, Kan., Newport Beach, Calif., Milwaukee, Wis. and Langhorne, Penn.  Company wide, TRANSFIRST currently processes approximately $22 billion in annual sales volume for more than 160,000 merchants and more than 965 financial institutions. TRANSFIRST can be reached at 1-800-745-2659 or at www.TRANSFIRST.com.