Optimizing Financial Performance with LEVERAGE Payment Solutions: A Comprehensive Approach to Payment Consulting Services

By: Stephanie Hainje, Director of Marketing and Consultative Services, LEVERAGE Payment Solutions

LEVERAGE Payment Solutions (LPS) offers a comprehensive suite of consulting services designed to provide credit unions nationwide with strategic consultative advice using industry best practices and benchmarking.

One of the foundation services provided by LPS is Portfolio Consulting, which helps credit unions assess and manage their debit and credit portfolios effectively. This service includes reviewing debit and credit card portfolio performance metrics, benchmarking and providing strategic recommendations to improve cardholder experience and increased portfolio growth to remain competitive in the overall payments industry. For example, since the launch of LPS Portfolio Consulting Services in 2021, our credit union’s credit card portfolio has grown by over 15%.

In addition to Portfolio Consulting, LPS excels in payment Network Consulting. This service focuses on optimizing a credit union’s payment network participation and involves evaluating existing network setups, to minimize expense and maximize interchange revenue. It is common to see credit unions who are “over networked” and enrolled in too many networks other than the Card Act requirement of one “affiliated” and one “non-affiliated” network.

Another critical aspect of LPS’ consulting services is Invoice Consulting. This involves a detailed examination of a credit union’s payment processing invoice to identify inaccuracies, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improvement. Issuers need to understand their processor’s invoice line items and most issuers do not. During a recent invoice review with a prospective client, LPS was able to identify over $4,000 in monthly savings for an $20M credit union by moving their processing relationship to LPS rather than a direct processor environment – without a processing conversion.

Regardless of asset size, all credit unions with an LPS product or service have a complimentary, dedicated Portfolio Consultant to provide strategic recommendations for portfolio growth and profitability.

Credit unions who do not have a LPS product or service can schedule a complimentary payments consultation with one of our payments experts by contacting consulting@myleverage.com or by visiting www.leveragepaymentsolutions.com.