CardFlight Eyes Level 2 Data For Lower Biz Card Fees

Payment Software-as-a-Service firm CardFlight is introducing Level 2 card processing data into its software SwipeSimple, aimed at lowering transactions fees for B2B vendors.

In a press release on Wednesday (June 26), CardFlight said sellers will have the capability to collect Level 2 data when accepting commercial cards. Companies can gather the data through the SwipeSimple Merchant Web Dashboard, enabling them to meet the standards of Level 2 data and lower interchange fees, while addressing security and fraud risks in card-not-present transactions.

The solution is designed for smaller sellers, and will be available on July 1, the company said.

“The rollout of Level 2 Interchange Qualification support is the latest addition to our software suite, aimed at meeting the needs of businesses looking to accept B2B payment transactions from their computer when the cardholder is not present,” said CardFlight Chief Technology Officer Peter Wagener in a statement. “Our team has invested significant time and resources over the past year in expanding the capabilities we offer via SwipeSimple to include features such as invoices and customers, and tools like SwipeSimple Terminal, which help bring our payment acceptance technology to even more small businesses across industries.”

Card issuers and banks will often turn to Level 2 data in card-not-present transactions to mitigate the risk of fraud by obtaining more information about the transaction and the entity making it. As B2B payments migrate away from checks, and as commercial card adoption increases, card-not-present transactions will be an increasingly common scenario in the B2B sphere.

Interchange fees are often cited as one of the biggest barriers to commercial card adoption, with B2B vendors reluctant to absorb the fees to accept card payments. However, service providers are also looking at how Level 3 and Level 4 transaction processing data drives down interchange fees even further.

“I would suggest that the card brands and issuing banks see transactions as being less risky if the merchant has taken the time to get the data needed in order to provide value for each of the Level 3 data fields,” said Scott Judkins, co-founder and chief executive officer at PayTrace, in an earlier interview with PYMNTS.