PAYSTUB              
    The Payroll eNewsletter from Atlantic Capital Bank              3rd Quarter, 2013
  
Welcome to the Paystub!

Kurt Shreiner

EVP, Corporate Financial Services

As one of Atlantic Capital Bank's founders, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the first edition of our payroll industry newsletter, Paystub. We hope this newsletter will provide payroll professionals with payment insights from a Bank's perspective,  update key economic and regulatory issues, as well as serve as a forum for best practices in the payroll industry.  

Atlantic Capital Bank believes that a strong payroll industry is critical to the orderly functioning of a growing economy.  Reliable and forward looking banking relationships form one of the cornerstones of a healthy payroll industry. Today's newsletter is yet another of Atlantic Capital Bank's steps to cement strong relationships between the payroll industry and our company.

Sincerely,

Kurt Shreiner, EVP
Corporate Financial Services

Conference Recap


   


Team members from Atlantic Capital Bank attended this year's IPPA Conference in Miami, FL. Below are a few valuable observations made during their time at the conference:
  

 

- An artificially depressed interest rate environment will continue to constrain the payroll service bureau's earnings stream and will continue to depress valuation.

  

- The use of analytics and "Big Data" will prove to be a comptetive differentiator in the payroll marketplace.

  

- Understanding the client lifecycle will help target the sales message and lead to a greater chance of predictable success.

 

- Regulations associated with ACH processing are becoming more stringent making it important to find a financially sound ACH processor to support your operations.

Meet the ACB experts
 
Janet Boyst
EVP,
Operations and Technology
 
Ms. Janet Boyst is the Executive Vice President of Atlantic Capital Bank overseeing the Bank's Operations and Technology division.

"In Operations, our goal is to deliver exceptional service to our clients by partnering with them to understand their business needs, doing what we say we will do, finding creative solutions to their problems, and striving for flawless execution on their services."


Ms. Boyst served on the NACHA Board of Directors from 1994 to 2008. She was named vice chairman in 1998 and served as chairman of the board from 2000-2003. She also served as chairman of the NACHA Government Advisory Council. Ms. Boyst has served on the Western Payments Alliance Board of Directors and the Electronic Payments Network Board of Directors.

Contact Us
Nathan Ottinger
SVP, Payment Services Banking
404.995.0223
[email protected]
 
Atlantic Capital Bank
3280 Peachtree Road NE
Suite 1600
Atlanta, GA 30305
404.995.6050
U.S. Historical Interest Rate and Economic Data
 
Financial Instruments
Today
(as of 9.13.13)
1-year ago
1-month Libor
.22.31
6-month Libor
.42.63
1-year T-bill.12.17
5-year T-bill1.72.62
10-year T-bill2.931.60
U.S. Unemployment7.3%8.1%
 
*Current and historical rate data taken from the Federal Reserve Board (www.federalreserve.gov)
A-B-C - Always, Be, Compliant...

Nathan Ottinger

SVP, Payment Services Banking

There is a famous scene from the movie Glengarry, GlenRoss that most frontline sales people can recall or even recite word-for-word. In the scene, three real estate sales professionals (Jack Lemon, Ed Harris and Alan Arkin) are in their office on a rainy evening. Suddenly and brusquely they are addressed by a sharply dressed sales manager from the head office of Mitch & Murray, played by Alec Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin provides the sales team with an unsolicited motivational speech about how to be successful in real estate sales. Dispersed between insults and personal attacks is the mantra "A.B.C. - Always Be Closing."
  
Most leaders of payroll services firms that I know would agree with Baldwin's advice - we should always be closing deals and looking for new potential clients. But in the case of the payroll industry, there are some new challenges to the "Always Be Closing" mindset: compliance and regulatory matters associated with making ACH payments.

Today's payroll salespeople need to make sure they are not only closing deals but actively assessing the risks associated with new client acquisition. What payments-related compliance matters should a payroll service bureau evaluate when courting a new client? One of the most critical aspect of payments compliance boils down to the industry segment and underlying business practices of the potential client. Banks, which process your ACH transactions through the Federal Reserve, are severely restricted by regulatory authorities to process payments for certain high risk industry segments including, online gambling, money transfer businesses, payday lending, virtual currency, online sweepstakes and offshore merchants, among others (see FDIC Payment Processor Relationships Financial Institutions Letter, FIL-3-2012.)

Your bank counts on you to know your clients and confirm the nature of the payments you are processing. If your clients are operating in higher risk industry segments as outlined by the FDIC, you risk your reputation as a high quality payments provider and may risk ACH service interruption. So, now is the time to lead your team in a new mantra - "A.B.C. - Always, Be, Compliant."
  
What are some steps you can take towards A.B.C. - Always Be Compliant?
  
Know your customer - In recent years, the process of customer acquisition has changed greatly due to advances in communication technology. The speed at which clients can be acquired, implemented and processed as a "live" client can lead to situations where convenience can be the enemy of knowledge. Taking the time to get to know, learn and evaluate your client's business practices and market segments will improve your compliance regimen.
 

Empower your sales team that it is ok to say no - One of the most liberating comments that a senior sales manager ever made to me was that it was ok - and in fact, preferred - to say "no" if the proposed deal did not meet our company's compliance standards. Empowering your team with the ability to say "no" to a deal will help reinforce the fact that compliance to your policies and procedures is important.
 

Embrace a 3rd Party Opinion - The visceral response from a business owner that they should pay someone to audit the nuances of their business, be underfoot in the office for a week, ask a lot of questions and then tell you what you are doing wrong in a written format is an emphatic "you got to be kidding me." However, a 3rd party opinion of how the compliance and internal controls work within your organization can be an invaluable tool to benchmark your organization and ensure you are doing the right things the right way. An outside audit of your organization is another way your internal and external constituents know that you place high value on being a reliable provider.
 

By implementing a thoughtful compliance program, your payroll company will be able to grow, expand and become known as a reliable and sustainable payments provider. So, just remember A.B.C. "Always Be Closing" and "Always Be Compliant."

 

 

We would welcome your comments about this topic and others that are affecting the payments industry.

atlanticcapitalbank.com

Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender