Learn Merchant Cash Advance or Else…

If you don’t know about Merchant Cash Advance (MCA), you’re not qualified to work in the payments industry! As indicated by the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), Certified Payment Professionals (CPPs) should be savvy with MCA financing. According to the ETA: “The [new] CPP program sets the standard for professional performance in the payments industry and is a symbol of excellence. It signifies that an individual has demonstrated the knowledge and skills required to perform competently in today’s complex electronic payments environment.”

CPP candidates can preview exam sample questions in the official handbook, one of which asks:

An established merchant that processes $25,000 in bank card transactions per month has no marketing budget, but has been offered a sponsorship opportunity. What product/solution should the payments professional recommend?

The answer is “merchant funding” AKA MCA. Believe it folks. The MCA financing product is here to stay, has benefitted thousands of businesses, and payment professionals must be well versed in it if they are to become certified.

But there is more than a test to become a CPP.

[The ETA says] to be eligible to sit for the CPP examination, candidates must demonstrate the following qualifications:

	1 year of industry-related experience and a high school diploma, associate, or bachelor’s degree, OR 3 years of industry-related work experience  Industry-related experience is defined as full-time work experience in: 1) a payments-related company that sells, distributes and / or provides electronic payments-related products, services or solutions to merchants and businesses, or 2) a company that services or is a consultant to a business described above. Recommendation and signoff of a supervisor or individual in a management position at an industry-related company Signature on candidate attestation
	CPP candidates will then be required to sit for and pass a Certified Payments Professional written examination. Upon successful completion of the exam and the attainment of the CPP credential, certificants will be required to meet renewal / recertification requirements every three years, to include continuing professional education from ETA / QSP’s or the successful completion of the test.

The next exam dates are May 1 – 31, 2012. You can learn more about registering and what it mean to be a CPP on the ETA’s official site. And don’t forget to learn about Merchant Cash Advance.  🙂

Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future deBanked events here.