BOCA RATON, FL — There’s not a lot good being said about banks and financial institutions these days – but Mary Catherine Pappas and Mace Horowitz can scarcely contain their enthusiasm for a new kid in the adult billing world and how the country’s slide into economic hard times may well be something that online erotic entities can actually make work to their advantage. Mace is vice-president of operations for AMP Worldwide and an energetically amiable man who, like Pink, Bono and Madonna, only needs one name to be unforgettable. Having entered the business in 1984, Mace knows first-hand that the world of adult financing has changed a lot since the days when he rubber stamped every application that graced his desk.
“I was used to approving pretty much everything, I was used to saying ‘approved’ to everybody” he admits, reflecting fondly on the good ole days, when Card Services International first became one of the leading financial stars in the adult industry’s fiscal universe. “When things started to go a little differently with the banks and the Feds and moral issues and all, I realized that some of the good accounts, high-volume accounts, high-risk accounts were starting to fall off and we weren’t able to continue to do them.”
While some might have seen this as a sign to cut ties with those accounts, Mace saw it as a sign that he should move closer.
“Right around 2001 I started to focus on ‘unconventional’ business types, which I prefer as a term over ‘high-risk.’ I stopped going after the retail stores, the pizza shops, the clothing stores and door-to-door knocking on Ventura Blvd. and started focusing on the ones that I figured nobody else would do.”
Eight years later, Mace and AMP Worldwide director of client services, Pappas, enthusiastically believe that their hard work and confidence in the adult market has lead them to possess “a very, very viable product” in their professional portfolio: an established bank so new to this segment of the industry that theirs is nearly an exclusive arrangement.
According to Mace, whose genuine enthusiasm on the subject is contagious, “They’ve got the largest retail portfolio in the entire merchant processing business. They just never got into this unconventional space before. They have the infrastructure, they have the customer service, they have the sales support, they have the risk management, they have the fraud protection, they have the scrubbing, they’ve got the affiliate program, they’ve got the cascade billing. They’ve got what this industry needs – and that is a choice.”
Although AMP Worldwide would naturally like to have more than just a token of any company’s processing, Mace is so confident in his new product that they’re willing to work collaboratively with cautious merchants as a supplementary solution to their billing needs until they’ve earned the confidence to take on more.
For those wondering why they would ever want to add options to their processing, Mace poses the not-so-hypothetical business question of: “What are you going to do when (fill in the blank?”
In Mace’s opinion, diversifying allows merchants a wider range of successful solutions when the expected or unexpected happens. In his opinion, as many as 80 – 90-percent of adult businesses will likely have a positive result from AMP Worldwide’s latest product, regardless of whether they have a brick and mortar presence or exist exclusively online.
As Mace points out, when multiple companies rely upon a common bank, the suffering can be widespread if that bank exits the marketplace. “Although they think they’re putting all their eggs out and not in one basket, they’re really where everybody else is – and that generates tremendous risk for a bank,” he explains. “We have multiple solutions, one of which is brand spankin’ new to the space.”
The same need for diversification that exists among adult merchants is what has inspired this bank to enter the unconventional world of adult merchants and therefore allows it to pro-actively “think out of the box,” as Mace describes it.
With the economy spinning in multiple directions while sometimes seeming to simultaneously stand still, adult merchants are also looking for ways to “think out of the box,” if the number of time Mace and Pappas’ phones have run is any indication.
“We’re blown away,” he admits. “The phone rings all the time.”
What makes the situation even more powerful is the fact that Mace and company not only return those calls, but provide plenty of follow-up even after the deal is sealed. At AMP Worldwide, he assures clients that they will find “People who aren’t just out to make a fast buck, but people who will be with you tomorrow. People that will come see you five months after you set up with them. People that will make a friendly phone call to say ‘Hey, how’s it going?’”
From the confidence that Mace and Pappas show in this new banking option, it seems likely that the response will be “I’m doing great – thanks to you!”
Learn more about the billing options available through AMP Worldwide by visiting www.AMPWorldwide.com or www.AlternativeMerchantProcessing.com.
