It may be hard to imagine but 55% of the nation's 27 million small businesses do not accept credit cards, according to an Intuit Inc. GoPayment survey. Those denials can be costly – as much as $100 billion in sales each year, the data showed.
Read more from the Payments Focus Report:
- Some Small Businesses Resist Switching Channels
- Guest Opinion: Mobile Photo Bill Pay Offers New Revenue Stream
One advantage for credit unions is that small businesses are very sensitive to fees, valuing a good fee structure more than other innovations, rates or rewards programs, a BAI survey noted.
In fact, some noted that higher fees were the factor most likely to affect a decision to switch financial institutions.
With legislation still pending on whether credit unions will be able to see a higher member business lending cap, some are shifting their attention towards building their business deposit services including credit card, merchant services and online and mobile offerings.
Here are a few stats showing where the payment system opportunities may lie for those credit unions that want to reach out to small businesses.
| How do financial institutions stack up with their small business payment offerings?* | |
| Small Business Payment Functionality | % of Respondents Offering Functionality |
| Online Bill Pay for Small Business | 79% |
| Online Wire Initiation | 75% |
| Online ACH Initiation | 73% |
| Small Business Payroll | 60% |
| Online, Integrated Access to All Payment Types | 52% |
| Integration With Major Accounting Packages | 52% |
| Check Printing / Outsourcing | 46% |
| Online, Integrated Reporting Across Payment Types | 46% |
| Invoice Management Capabilities | 25% |
| Bank Identification of Lowest Cost Payment Mechanism (*Survey of 52 banks and credit unions) | 21% |
Sources: Intuit, Treasury Strategies, MineralTree
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