Since our founding in 1993, we’ve focused on providing the best security and support for payment acceptance in the industry. We built our success on solving payment challenges for merchants – and this mission led us to move beyond gateway services to offer additional, more robust security products.
Discover the important milestones we achieved as the industry has evolved using this interactive timeline.
Merchant Link Timeline
| 1993 | 1994 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2001 | 2002 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Link is founded on March 11, 1993Contract with MICROS signed, establishing a strong partnership that would benefit the company for years to come |
A 24×7 call center is established for Merchant Link customers | The company processes 5 million transactions per month and handles more than 1200 calls per month | Merchant Link is acquired by Chase Paymentech and backed by J.P. Morgan Chase | The company outgrows its Bethesda office and relocates to Silver Spring at its current address | Signed first gateway client, First Horizon |
Merchant Link helped provide First Horizon with one of the first Internet gateways for brick-and-mortar merchants |
IHOP joins the Merchant Link customer community
Acquired NXT, a software development company, enabling more efficient product updates |
Designated a Level 1 PCI DSS Compliant Provider |
More than 1 billion transactions are processed this year | The Greenbrier Resort is the first company to sign on to Merchant Link’s solution for the hotel industry
Launched TransactionVault®, one of the industry’s first tokenization products |
Recognizing the importance of the reseller market, Merchant Link launches online order status and reports for VARs, enabling them to quickly search and find credit card transactions | Best Buy joins the Merchant Link customer community
Merchant Link becomes a joint venture of Chase Paymentech and First Data |
T.G.I. Friday’s joins the Merchant Link customer community
Partnership agreement signed with Agilysys |
Launched TransactionShield®, a point-to-point encryption solution, to help merchants protect data in-transit
Merchant Link launches the next generation Merchant Link Payment GatewayTM, offering more flexibility in processing and managing electronic transactions InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) joins the Merchant Link customer community Bunt Software and Merchant Link extend life of Panasonic POS System with SMPlink to ensure data security and PCI compliance |
New partnerships are formed with Ingenico, Voltage Security and Equinox Payments
TransactionVault® is integrated to PAR Springer-Miller’s SpaSoft solution and Image Technology Systems’ Visual Matrix property management solution Columbia Sportswear Company joins the Merchant Link customer community Dan Lane named President and CEO |
Business Solutions magazine names Merchant Link one of the Best Channel Vendors for 2012 in the Payment Processing category, with high marks for service and support, product reliability, and channel friendliness
New partnerships formed with XPIENT Solutions and Transaction Resources, Inc. Designated by AmericInn as the brand standard for payment and data security services for its franchisees ID TECH partnership adds more devices to the company’s growing portfolio of P2PE integrations Launched Managed Firewall Services, including breach insurance, in partnership with Phoenix Managed Networks Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon join the Merchant Link customer community |
Staff exceeds 150 employees
Merchant Link launches innovative e-commerce solution for merchants to process payments securely in card-not-present environments |
Merchant Link Announces the Availability of Apple Pay Contactless Payment Solution for MICROS Products
Merchant Link and MSI Expand Relationship to Include Tokenization and Point-to-Point Encryption for MSI CloudPM™ Alfatek Integrates with Merchant Link’s Tokenization and Point-to-Point Encryption Solutions StayNTouch Integrates with Merchant Link to Provide Tokenization & Point-to-Point Encryption from Mobile/Tablet PMS Merchant Link Provides Integrated Point-to-Point Encryption to MICROS Clients in the U.S. and Canada Merchant Link and Precidia Technologies Collaborate to Remove Cardholder Data from Integrated Point-of-Sale Systems Merchant Link and Tender Retail Join Forces to Remove Cardholder data from Integrated Point-of-Sale Systems |
Merchant Link Acquires Precidia Technologies
Bluefin Payment Systems and Merchant Link Partner to Provide Bluefin’s Decryptx™ PCI-Validated P2PE Solution to Merchant Link Clients Merchant Link Adds Verifone Device Support to TransactionLink® for EMV |
Merchant Link Provides Validated EMV Solution to Oracle Restaurants
Visual Matrix Integrates with Merchant Link’s EMV Solution, TransactionLink® Bluefin Payment Systems and Merchant Link Announce the Availability of PCI-Validated P2PE on the Merchant Link Platform Merchant Link Launches EMV for Restaurants Using Oracle iPOS Merchant Link Achieves EMV Certification with Chase Paymentech and First Data on the Verifone VX Device Family EMV certifications completed with TSYS Merchant Link and Ingenico roll out EMV for restaurant merchants |
