How First American by Deluxe is Competing in Payments

Since Deluxe acquired First American Payment Systems in June of 2021, there have been lots of questions about the new and exciting division within our company. As solid and legendary as our checks business has been, it’s natural to wonder what we’re doing to ensure Deluxe sees another century of business. We all live and breathe payments every day – not just because we are a Trusted Payments and Business Technology™ company, but because we are also curious consumers, buying things in lots of different ways. In our personal lives, we hear the names Square, Stripe, Shopify, and QuickBooks, and we want to know – where does Deluxe fit into that world? Shawn Dillon, EVP of Sales and Chief Product Officer for First American, recently spoke to a group of Deluxers about how the company, with the strength and support of First American, is currently competing and will continue to compete in the high stakes, ever-evolving world of payments.

Better Together

The reason Deluxe made First American the largest acquisition in company history lies in how together we are better able to help businesses pay, get paid and grow. Below are some of the ways, among others, that we are helping financial institutions.

• More robust integration offerings: Our recent Q2 partnership gives financial institutions (FIs) the ability to provide their customers single sign-on access to Deluxe Payroll + HR Solutions. With merchant services included in that package, we further expand opportunities for merchants to access and utilize payment solutions in their existing online banking platform.
• Actionable Analytics: Using data acquired across the enterprise, Deluxe has built the deepest consumer and business data lakes. By including insights collected through ACH and merchant transactions and records of new bank accounts opened monthly, Fitech by Deluxe, our sales channel dedicated to financial institutions, contributes and strengthens those resources, resulting in an in-depth analysis of our customers' performance and potential.
• Accelerated Buyer Journey: Thanks to insights gleaned through existing and new banking and FI relationships, we understand competitor selling points. This, coupled with Deluxe’s industry-leading marketing capabilities, enables stronger leads with higher closing rates. 
• Marketing Tools: Fitech educates bank and FI personnel about Deluxe solutions so they can successfully sell Deluxe products to their customers. The easy-to-use assets developed by Deluxe provide those teams with customizable tools such as email templates, digital ad copy, teller scripts, and more. Learn more about Fitech and its place within the One Deluxe strategy.

Product Playbook

First American by Deluxe has an extensive suite of products available to meet any customer's needs. Our family of companies provides customizable, scalable, and automated solutions to help businesses thrive.

First American also makes it easy to deliver a seamless omnichannel experience. Our APIs are accessible and are supported by documentation, sample code or SDKs, and even a sandbox environment where developers can test and experiment with our solutions.  

Another differentiator in the market is in First American’s government and municipality payment solutions. Nobody else offers payment services specifically designed for these groups, who traditionally require unique and custom payment acceptance, delivery and reporting solutions. Certified Payments, another company brought into the Deluxe family through the First American acquisition, has helped more than 3,500 government entities vastly improve their revenue collection cycles via integrated, automated reporting and save hundreds of thousands in transaction costs with our Service Fee pricing model. By managing the gateway services, technology and payment processing in-house, we are able to control costs for our clients each and every day. Learn more about Certified Payments by Deluxe.

Future State of Payments

As the Original Payments Company, Deluxe is uniquely positioned to lead the way into the future of payments. Although much is unknown, the Payments ecosystem of the future is sure to be one where every organization has the opportunity to have all their payment-related needs met within one system. The Deluxe Payment Platform is a unique technology that combines the backend systems of all our payment offerings into a centralized merchant/partner portal, capitalizing on the strengths of each expanding product set and housing all data in one location. And best of all, every customer we serve (whether partner, merchant, or reseller) will now have a single sign-on access point for every payment product of ours that they use. 

Our “customers first” approach to product innovation includes commitment to researching and testing concepts with our customers. We know that businesses of any size want convenience and ease of use, and they value the ability to integrate functions that support paying and getting paid. Additionally, we’ve learned the value of a single portal including complementary payments products. Deluxe is investing over $1M every year in developing technology to keep creating great experiences for our customers and the partnership with First American highlights our commitment to strategic acquisitions supporting strong secular growth for years to come.