Dive Brief:

• Independent sales organization Merchant Lynx Services has acquired payment acceptance provider National Credit Card Processing Group (NCCP), the companies announced last week.
• Palm Beach Gardens, Florida-based Merchant Lynx Services caters to merchant clients in the hospitality and auto services verticals, according to a Thursday news release. NCCP Group, based in Long Island, New York, offers business-to-business payment acceptance and technology services, and focuses on verticals such as construction, trucking parts and highway civil construction, according to the release.
• The purchase closed June 30, said AJ Cross, vice president of administration and human resources for Merchant Lynx Services, in a Monday interview. Cross declined to comment on terms of the deal.

Dive Insight:

It would have taken Merchant Lynx Services years to organically establish the kind of presence NCCP Group has in the highway construction and large equipment arena, so the acquisition offered a more efficient route to that end, Cross said. 

“It was worth doing this buy to make sure that we have that sort of immediate presence and have that footprint through NCCP Group,” Cross said.

Merchant Lynx Services was 54th in a ranking of U.S. merchant acquirers by Visa and Mastercard volume in the March issue of industry publication the Nilson Report. NCCP didn't show up in the list of 63 acquirers.

The company was among the merchant acquirers that experienced an increase of more than 17% in Mastercard and Visa volume last year, and an increase of more than 25% in other credit card purchase volume, outside of those two networks, according to Nilson.

Merchant Lynx Services processed $3.2 billion in payment volume in 2022, Cross said. The company has 107 employees. Cross declined to comment on NCCP’s volume.

Of NCCP Group’s 11 employees, five chose to stay following the acquisition, and they will remain at NCCP Group’s headquarters in Long Island, Cross said.   

The acquisition is part of Merchant Lynx Services’ strategic expansion plans, Cross said. The privately-held company aims to make one to two more purchases by mid-2024, Cross said.