CSG Forte Combats Fraud with Launch of End-to-End Authorization Solution, CSG Forte Authenticate
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ALLEN, Oct. 20, 2022 – CSG Forte, a CSG (NASDAQ: CSGS) company and the expert in processing and making automated clearing house (ACH) payments more secure and reliable, today launched CSG Forte Authenticate. To be successful, merchants need lock-tight authentication capabilities that effectively reduce the risks of fraud and automate their processes. Authenticate is an end-to-end payments security solution that empowers merchants across verticals to seamlessly verify account owner ACH payments and reduce the risk of fraud.
“At a time when fraud is surging, it is not a matter of if, but when fraud occurs. From customer convenience to ease of acceptance, CSG Forte Authenticate gives merchants the ability to process ACH payments with confidence, securely and reliably,” said Jeff Kump, head of payments, CSG Forte. “CSG Forte continues to modernize our platform to reduce time to activation, ensure that businesses get paid on-time with accuracy and introduce new products that meet evolving customer demands. We’re proud to be industry leaders in helping merchants combat fraud.”
According to “The State of Retail Payments in 2022” from Forrester Research, Inc., September 2022, “improving security (fraud, management encryption) jumped to the top of the list of online initiatives, with a significant 42% of retailers including it on their list of priorities.” With CSG Forte Authenticate at the center of ACH payments, an insurance company can reduce fraudulent deposits and increase customer loyalty and trust by depositing a check into the account owned by the person they are writing the check to.
With CSG Forte Authenticate, businesses can:
Reduce fraud or potential losses, establish a secure financial transaction relationship and improve overall profitability
Ensure validated and non-failing inputs to the processor/network, to drive increased acceptance rates
Catch errors in the early stages of a transaction and prevent transaction delays, to deliver increased customer satisfaction and loyalty
Based on the Merchant Risk Council, the volume of ACH transactions has grown by over 50% in less than a decade, which indicates that ACH payments are a growing segment of the modern payments landscape. CSG Forte’s expertise in same-day ACH technology allows merchants to fuel growth by receiving funds quicker and at a lower price than working with other payment processors. For more information about CSG Forte Authenticate, join us at Money 2020 in Las Vegas #3-222 (Venetian Tower) or visit https://www.forte.net/why-csg-forte/authenticate.
Million Dollar Payments: Nacha Boosting Same-Day ACH Maximum
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Think of your favorite news outlet, any news outlet. Chances are, if you visit their site right now, the leading topic will be the economy. From inflation to new job numbers, several metrics and topics are commonly discussed when analyzing the economy. However, the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network often goes overlooked in economic discussions. And it definitely shouldn’t—with over 7.5 billion payments valued at $18.9 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone.
With payment volumes and values continuing to grow, new rules are needed to foster the growth of the ACH network. The National Automated Clearing House Association (Nacha), an organization that governs and facilitates the ACH Network, develops standards and rules to ensure the ACH Network operates smoothly, and that payment information transfers securely and quickly.
In response to substantial increases in ACH payments, Nacha announced a rule that will increase the same-day ACH spending limit. Beginning March 18, 2022, businesses will be able to transfer same-day credit and debit payments up to $1 million, up from the current $100,000 cap.
And with more verticals likely to adopt this because of the increasing amount of payments they can accept, there’s never been a better time to start offering this payment option. Get paid faster, lower payment processing costs and easily manage recurring payments.
As a Nacha preferred partner, CSG Forte is the leading payments provider of same-day ACH, supporting over 73,000 merchants. With a best-in-class solution and decades of experience, we deliver a scalable and seamless solution to companies operating in a wide variety of verticals, including integrated software vendors (ISVs), healthcare, property management, government, insurance, enterprises and utility organizations.
Our payments platform can turn what was once an operational expense into a revenue generator through our revenue optimization solutions. Our platform optimizes ACH payments by validating payments in real-time, automatically re-presenting failed payments and keeping recurring payments on track.
Want to learn how you can optimize your ACH payments and take advantage of the rule change? Click here to learn more.
CSG Forte Recognized in Forrester’s Now Tech Payment Report
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Forrester’s Now Tech Merchant Payment Report offers an overview of payment providers to help merchants understand the value of different payment providers—and ultimately help them find a payment provider that can help grow their business. We’re proud that CSG Forte was recognized for our full, end-to-end payments-as-a-platform solution. Additionally, Forrester highlighted CSG Forte’s expertise in the government, home security and business services verticals.
To compile the report, Forrester distributes a questionnaire to the market to identify product capabilities, market presence, geographic focus, and an overview of primary market segments. Equipped with this valuable information, merchants can select a payments partner that best fits their needs.
“To be identified by an industry leader like Forrester is validation of our mission—to make payments simple, safe and scalable,” said CSG Forte’s President Jeff Kump. “Our goal is to tirelessly innovate and simplify payments for our customers. This report is evidence that we’re on the right track and that the best is yet to come.”
Forrester uses a brief assessment of product capabilities to have a well-rounded group of vendors that span markets and geographies with varying areas of expertise. Some the key attributes of the CSG Forte platform include:
ACH Processing—As a Nacha preferred partner, CSG Forte is known for its ACH capabilities, including real-time payment processing, ACH/eCheck origination, validation and fraud prevention.
Customizable Convenience Fees—Unlike other payment processors, CSG Forte allows merchants to set convenience fees for their customers in real-time in the payments portal.
Credit Card Processing—CSG Forte’s solution makes it simple to process debit and credit card payments in-person, online and over the phone, and to set up recurring payments.
In addition to these unique capabilities, CSG Forte also offers several differentiators that benefit our customers:
Revenue optimization—By simplifying the payments process through a unified, end-to-end solution, CSG Forte helps clients grow and optimize their revenue.With industry-leading ACH processing capabilities, clients are able to receive funds quicker than the traditional credit card process, often receiving funds the same day with Same Day ACH.
Stringent security and compliance—CSG Forte’s solutions implement cutting-edge technology and proven protocols to keep vital information secure. Through tokenization, end-to-end encryption and hosted web pages, CSG Forte allows clients to accept payments securely. Additionally, we offer built-in PCI compliance and Nacha real-time transaction compliance.
Superior support—Navigating the payments landscape can be tricky. CSG Forte simplifies the process with best-in-class client support. With a dedicated support team, comprehensive onboarding resources, a robust knowledge base and regular release notes, CSG Forte makes accepting and processing payments easy.
CSG Forte is proud to be included in Forrester’s Now Tech report. By selecting a vendor from the Now Tech Merchant Payment Report, merchants can improve how they accept and process payments—from supporting new payment methods to reducing fraud and enhancing security and compliance. Click here to read about CSG Forte’s growth into 2022.
Learn how CSG Forte delivers seamless integration through partner network to meet accelerated demand for secure, convenient digital payments.
CSG Forte Earns TSG’s 2022 Best Performing Payments Gateway Award
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Performance benchmarking is vital for payment processing, as it allows payment gateways to pinpoint issues and make adjustments to provide a seamless experience to merchants and consumers alike. That is a key reason why The Strawhecker Group (TSG), a leading payment analytics and consulting firm, created the Gateway Enterprise Metrics (GEM) platform. GEM tracks two-thirds of all payment gateway volume in the U.S., and serves as a benchmark for merchant, developer and gateway performance. These aspects are critical for leading gateways use data and make tangible improvements.
Using transaction metrics from 2021, TSG named CSG Forte as the Best Performing Gateway, with a total score surpassing the average by more than 12 points on the GEM Index when ranked against more than 20 gateway providers. The GEM Index is an overall scorecard for gateway metrics based on five key areas: gateway minute outage, gateway availability, transaction speed, transaction success rate and authorization rate.
Supporting this ongoing placement as Best Performing Gateway, CSG Forte received first place rankings in two other categories as well, specifically Gateway Minute Outage – North America, and Gateway Minute Outage – Global. In this category, CSG Forte had the lowest overall number of outages, a testament to our reliability and consistent delivery of our payments gateway.
This isn’t the first time we have received recognition in TSG’s GEM reports. In fact, we had strong performance in 2021 and even held the highest score in TSG’s 2021 semi-annual report. Our continued focus and dedication allowed us to deliver extraordinary experiences for our customers and in 2022 be recognized by TSG as a leader in this competitive market.
How does TSG measure these categories? Their unique approach is to monitor how gateways perform through pings and real transactions from more than 20 global locations. As a vendor, the information this report provides is invaluable, as it reveals in near real-time areas that we can improve.
We know that performance of our payment platform is more than just a ranking in a report. Here at CSG Forte, we continually invest in the quality of our payments offering including our industry leading payments gateway. Understanding these performance metrics allows us to enhance our platform, and continually improve our modern APIs and RESTful architecture. This investment in continual improvement has presented us with consistent recognition as a leading payments gateway provider.
How can you know which payments platform is right for your business? You need a solution that is intuitive to use, secure, and lightning fast. Click here to learn about how CSG Forte is committed to delivering a robust platform including our best-in-class payments gateway.
5 Payment Trends to Watch in 2022
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Human beings have an innate need to make predictions. For whatever reason, we like to make forecasts on just about everything, from Oscar winners to World Series champions, from election results to the likelihood of weather events, and everything in between.
The most effective prognosticators tend to take a 360-degree view. That is, they try to eliminate blind spots and take multiple factors into account. The recent past can give us a good idea of where things are heading moving forward.
In the payments world, the COVID-19 pandemic sent shockwaves throughout the industry that continue to reverberate. Today, we are seeing innovative breakthroughs in new digital payments technology, with rapid adoption across a wide range of industries. On the flip side, there are more opportunities for hackers and bad actors to try and take advantage.
Where is the payments industry headed? While I don’t claim to be Nostradamus, there are a few major trends I believe will dominate the payments headlines in 2022.
1) Digital Payment Methods Transform (and Explode)
The past few years have shown consumers that there are more ways to pay than just checks, cards and cash. As a result of the pandemic, contactless payments adoption has surged. Today, more than half of all Americans use at least one form of contactless payments (mobile apps, contactless cards, etc.). And consumers are letting merchants know that they expect more digital payment options—57 percent say they are more likely to do business with a merchant that offers a contactless payment option.
New payment methods will continue to attract first-time users in 2022, such as virtual credit cards, which provide consumers with alternative credit card numbers to disguise their sensitive information when making online transactions. There are a number of reasons virtual credit cards are an alluring prospect: they are environmentally friendly, incredibly secure and easy to monitor. They also empower the customer by allowing them to set spending limits and expiration dates. Just like with contactless, once buyers use a virtual credit card, they’ll demand the option moving forward.
2) Tighter Payment Security
An unfortunate byproduct of the rise of digital payments is the increase in digital payment fraud. eCommerce fraud grew to more than $20 billion in 2021. As security threats loom over merchants and consumers alike, more advanced fraud prevention will become a necessity.
In the next year, multifactor authentication (MFA) will become more commonplace. MFA has three types of authentication factors—biometric identification, device in-use and traditional password. Just as consumers are used to opening their smartphones with a quick press of the thumb, consumers will get used to using MFA for purchases.
In 2022, consumers will have the ability to set up multiple layers of security while making purchases in real-time. When a consumer is using a credit card at their local market, they can instantly receive a message to confirm their purchase. In the time it takes to glance at a screen, the transaction is confirmed to be safe. These additional levels of security can drastically reduce the risk of fraud, a tremendous benefit to both consumers and merchants.
3) Better Bill Pay
Bill payment is the one guaranteed touchpoint your customer will have with your business every month or quarter, and since these interactions are guaranteed, there’s a great opportunity to make them stand out.
In 2022, we predict that businesses and merchants will level up their bill payment processes, from offering customers payment methods like PayPal to establishing recurring payments so customers can set it and forget it. In fact, almost 40 percent of consumers prefer to pay their bills through automatic checking account deductions or credit/debit charges. By offering more convenience and choice, companies can make ordinary bill payment experiences extraordinary.
4) Companies Will Offer More Financial Flexibility
The last few years have highlighted the importance of flexibility—in how we work, interact and communicate. Now, consumers have come to expect flexibility in their payment terms. With the rise of apps like Klarna and Affirm, companies are embracing the “buy now, pay later” option, letting consumers pay off purchases in installments rather than one single payment. On the flip side, consumers can also customize when they get paid, with some prepaid debit cards and even financial institutions developing early payday options. In some cases, early direct deposit allows consumers to receive their paychecks into their accounts up to two days early.
Large financial institutions are beginning to adopt these new technologies to create a pipeline of young consumers who place a premium on flexibility, convenience and financial freedom. I anticipate the increased implementation of financial flexibility in the next year as a tech-savvy generation continues to push institutions to reinvent their business to keep pace with digital transformation.
5) Recurring Payments Will Keep Going (And Going, And Going…)
Nobody likes to waste money—especially on something as avoidable as late fees. For that reason, many consumers have embraced recurring payments for regular charges, including cable, utility and rent bills. The notion of having to pull out a checkbook and pay bills monthly is outdated—and this trend will spread to the B2B space.
Unfortunately, payment failures can stand in the way of a successful recurring payments strategy. Payment failures can lead to customer churn, bad debt and a diminishing bottom line. Businesses are increasingly embracing automation when it comes to their payments, including recurring payments. B2B companies that embrace payment modernization can avoid failure and effectively set and forget their recurring payments.
Want to learn more about how payment security can make 2022 your best (and safest) year yet? Download our 3 Steps to Ensure Payments Security here.
Power to the People: Digitized Payments Make Payments Safer and Easier
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The first electronic payment may have debuted in 1871, but digital payments have really shown their worth in the last 18 months. They have presented an ultra-secure, convenient and hygienically safe way to make payments without physical contact. Recent surveys show that digital payments are here to stay— 45 percent of US adults say they are likely to use digital or contactless in-store payments regularly in a store after the pandemic.
The Opportunity
Consumers are increasingly growing accustomed to digitized experiences. With a few taps of a smartphone, a pizza can arrive on their doorstep within a half-hour—no phone call, cash or physical contact needed. Digital experiences also offer an extra layer of safety during an ongoing pandemic. As low touch and digital experiences become more ubiquitous, consumers have come to expect them to be available, especially when it comes to payments.
Payments play a pivotal role in the customer experience—and contactless payments give consumers a safe, secure and easy way to pay. According to Forbes’ State of Contactless Payments 2021 report, when all other factors are equal, consumers will choose a store that offers contactless checkout over one without contactless. In terms of staying competitive, digital payments are no longer a nice-to-have—they are a must.
The Benefits
There are several benefits for both merchants and customers when it comes to digital and contactless payments.
Convenience— When asked why they wanted contactless options, 2% of respondents cited convenience as their primary reason for using contactless payments. Contactless payments remove the need for PINs or signatures.
Security— Contactless payments featuring RFID and NFC-enhanced technologies are secure, especially when paired with an enterprise-grade POS terminal with advanced security.
The Solution
From managing employees to balancing the books to creating an exceptional customer experience, merchants have more than enough to worry about—partnering with a payments provider with the right solution helps. At CSG Forte, we offer a full suite of solutions to make digitizing payments scalable, secure and convenient.
Our V400C Plus device makes contactless payments easy. The device was designed with merchants and their customers in mind—with enhanced features including a color touchscreen interface, wi-fi connectivity and thermal printing, merchants can smoothly conduct transactions and provide an exceptional customer experience.
The V400C Plus can be used as a standalone device, be connected to a point-of-sale application, or seamlessly integrate with CSG Forte products. Merchants can accept every major credit card, as well as mobile wallet payments, like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Combined with our cloud-based platform Dex, merchants can gain insights into what payments customers prefer and allow them to easily manage the entire transaction lifecycle.
Contactless payments were on the rise before the pandemic—COVID-19 has merely accelerated its momentum. When powered by the right technology, merchants can satisfy customers and boost revenues by offering secure and convenient contactless payments.
CSG Forte Ranks 1st in Payment Gateway Performance for H1 2021
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At CSG Forte, we continuously strive to improve the ways we make payments smarter, faster and scalable. One area of focus is our payments gateway. Over the past year, we’ve looked at several ways to make our platform, which is fueled by modern APIs and RESTful architecture, perform even better.
A recent Gateway Enterprise Metrics (GEM) Real Transaction Metrics report by The Strawhecker Group (TSG), a recognized leader in payments analytics and consulting, ranked CSG Forte first out of 22 gateways for overall payment gateway performance from January through June 2021.
Out of over 20 payment gateways evaluated, the average gateway scored 80.18 on the GEM Index, an overall scorecard for gateway metrics based on five key areas. CSG Forte received a 95.5 overall score, placing first in a competitive field. CSG Forte also tied for first in gateway availability, gateway minute outage and gateway uptime.
GEM is the only platform on the market that measures performance from a merchant, developer and gateway perspective. To measure the robustness of a platform, TSG monitors how gateways perform through pings and real transactions from over 20 global locations. This information can be used to increase bandwidth, mitigate platform performance issues and shift data locations.
TSG uses several measures and benchmarks for their report, including gateway minute outages, gateway availability, transaction average response time and gateway uptime. To calculate the GEM Index, they assign a value to each benchmark. For example, the best possible score for gateway minute outage is 15 but 30 for transaction average response time.
A payments platform needs to be intuitive to use, secure and fast. At the heart of every robust platform is a high-performing payments gateway. CSG Forte will continue to make it easier to accept and process payments for merchants, governments and enterprises.
Forte Places 2nd in The Strawhecker Group’s “Best in Breed” API Set Award
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A payments gateway needs to be easy to use, fully functional and intuitive for developers. Today, The Strawhecker Group (TSG), an industry leader in payments consulting and analytics, released their 2021 “Best in Breed” API Assessment, powered by the firm’s Gateway Enterprise Metrics (GEM) platform.
Part of the assessment centered around evaluations of API Sets. In a competitive field Forte placed second out of 20 payments companies in the “Best of Breed” API Set awards. Here’s how the scores were awarded.
The Assessment
TSG assessed features and functionality without integration and focused on APIs offered, response codes and versioning. TSG conducted the evaluation without assistance from gateway personnel, allowing them to accurately rank a processor’s gateway from three major standpoints—understandability, functionality, and self-sufficiency. The objective of the report was to provide a better understanding of how a gateway’s API affects merchants, developers, and the consumer.
The report was broken down into three areas: APIs, response codes and versioning.
APIs—According to the report, Forte provides very informative descriptions of the available APIs. Having added multiple APIs since the last assessment, the setup was presented logically and intuitively.
Response Codes—TSG found that Forte’s response codes were easy to locate and that in many cases, the descriptions offered substantial detail on any encountered issue.
Versioning—The versioning was found within the web service URL and listed as three versions, with multiple changes within each version.
Forte offers a unified end-to-end payments platform that easily adapts to changing needs and empowers companies to transform their payments operations into a competitive business strategy. By leveraging world-class technology, Forte continues to innovate and endeavor to make payments faster, smarter, and simpler.
Forte Tied for 2nd in The Strawhecker Group’s GEM API Integration Review
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Earlier this year, the Strawhecker Group (TSG), a recognized leader in payments analytics and consulting, released their API Integration Review. The firm’s Gateway Enterprise Metrics (GEM) platform reviewed four areas of API offerings: documentation, developer tools, implementation and certification process. GEM subscribers account for approximately two-thirds of all payment gateway volume in the United States.
Out of 21 reviewed gateways, Forte placed second, with a strong showing in each category. Let’s take a look at some of the key insights and feedback found in the TSG report.
THE RATING PROCESS
Each segment is rated on a 1-4 point scale, with 1 being the best. Forte’s overall average was an impressive 1.5 out of 4.
DOCUMENTATION Score: 1
TSG believes Forte’s documentation distribution is well-designed, easy to use and presented clearly and logically. Additionally, Forte provides multiple documentation formats, detailed information, programming examples, clear instructions and helpful descriptions. According to the report, “Forte’s documentation appears to be structured with developers in mind and designed to make the integration process simple and painless.”
DEVELOPER TOOLS Score: 1
TSG found that Forte provides a fully functioning test environment for testing and development. The report gave Forte high marks for offering a full test suite for formatting within the developer tool. In Postman, a popular API client, developers can insert credentials, run test transactions and receive instant feedback.
IMPLEMENTATION Score: 3
Overall, the TSG test implementation with Forte went smoothly. The complete score was impacted by an issue with duplicate transactions, which the system attempted to reverse too quickly after authorization. However, Forte’s responsive staff was able to quickly work through the issue. TSG found Forte payment experts to be “helpful and friendly.”
CERTIFICATION PROCESS Score: 1
As Forte does not require a certification process to move to production (Forte already has certifications with several test gateways), TSG awarded the highest possible score. Having the gateway certified saves both time and resources. Nearly half of the other gateways scored a 2 or lower in this category.
GEM is in the business of evaluating the best gateways in the industry. Forte offers intuitive documentation, advanced developer tools, smooth implementation and seamless certification. Forte is proud to receive this recognition and will continue to innovate and improve our payments gateway.
CSG Forte and Nacha: A Partnership to Modernize the ACH Experience
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It’s no secret that ACH payment volume is on the rise. Last year alone, there were 24.7 billion ACH transactions, totaling $55 trillion. This year, ACH payment volume grew 7.9 percent in Q2 compared to the same period last year.
Even with those astonishing numbers, there is still room for growth through the modernization of the ACH experience.
How?
Two partners in the payments field, CSG Forte and the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), have some ideas.
CSG Forte, an industry leader in payments management, offers a scalable and seamless all-in-one payment solution for integrated software vendors (ISVs), enterprises, governments and small/mid-size businesses. NACHA facilitates the administration, development and governance of the ACH network, which is the linchpin for the electronic movement of money and data in the United States. As partners, the two organizations are committed to fostering and accelerating innovation in the ACH and larger payments environments.
Recently, Jeff Thorness of CSG Forte and George Throckmorton of NACHA held a webinar to discuss the main ways to modernize ACH, from customer self-service to intelligent representment. You can watch the entire discussion and learn more about the future of ACH here.
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