Merchants, especially large merchants with multiple channels to market, have significant payments requirements. At the same time they want to be able to focus on what they do best: selling their goods and services to their customers. From their perspective, their payments provider(s) should be efficient, slick and cost effective.

However, there are payments topics that merchants do need to consider. As well as deciding which payment types to accept via which sales channels, and picking a payments provider – or providers – to meet that need, there are also other considerations.

For example Payments Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS). The Payments Card Industry - Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) is a versatile security standard that includes requirements for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design and other critical protective measures. Compliance with this has become a mandatory requirement for many market participants.

Another is whether to offer Dynamic Currency Conversion, or DCC (sometimes known as Cardholder Preferred Currency or CPC) at the point of sale. This is the process by which a cardholder can sign against a total amount displayed in their domestic currency when purchasing goods or services overseas. The exchange rate calculation and foreign exchange charge is applied by the acquirer (or their designated service partner) prior to the transaction being submitted to the issuer.

Questions include:

• What is PCI-DSS? And what are its implications for my business?
• Which acquirer or PSP should I use?
• What is DCC, and should I take advantage of it?
• How can I reduce my chargeback volumes?
• Does it make sense for me to issue my own branded payment cards? If so, should I co-brand in partnership with an existing issuer? What would it take for me to go it alone? How do I make the value proposition strong enough? Should I look at prepaid cards or at credit cards? Or both?
• What is the business case for me to accept contactless payments?
• How can I capitalise on the growth in m-commerce?
• What are the implications and opportunities for my business as a result of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA)?