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GCRTA Using InComm’s VanillaDirect Retail Network for Transit Support

A business leader living in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Merrill Brooks Smith is the founder and CEO of InComm Payments, which is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Merrill Brooks Smith founded the financial technology company in 1992 and has steered it to global prominence thanks in part to strategic partnerships with public and private organizations.

In June 2022, InComm announced it was working with the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) to support its launch of a mobile ticketing solution. GCRTA rolled out EZfare on its Transit mobile app on June 23. Following the roll out, its customers could use EZfare to plan trips, track vehicles, pay fares, and purchase fare media such as daily, weekly, or monthly passes. The launch also made it easier for GCRTA’s riders in Northeast Ohio to buy fare media through its app for 13 other transit agencies in Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan including PARTA, Laketran, METRO, and SARTA.

Many app users, however, are unbanked or underbanked. These people prefer to use cash. Resolute in upholding fare equity for all, GCRTA partnered with InComm to allow riders to load their Transit accounts with cash at any of the over 230 retail locations served by InComm’s VanillaDirect.

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A Look at the Future of the Prepaid Card Industry

An innovative prepaid industry professional based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Merrill Brooks Smith serves as CEO of InComm Payments. He established the Atlanta, GA company in 1992. In addition to his executive leadership position, Merrill Brooks Smith serves as the prepaid services provider in engineering and design.

Studies forecast that the global prepaid credit card market will expand significantly between 2022 and 2027. In the United States, the prepaid card market has an estimated value of over $658 billion. With a compound annual growth rate of 20.1 percent, the market is expected to approach $1.645 trillion in 2027.

Specific trends in the prepaid industry range from prepaid cards becoming the preferred payment method for gig workers to increased use among millennials. Upwork, a key player in America’s growing gig economy, reported 2 million new users in the first half of 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. About 84 percent of individuals who completed a PYMNTS 2019 Gig Economy Index survey said they would be more productive if they were paid faster, an area of struggle for legacy payment systems that sometimes have 120-day turnaround payment terms.

Meanwhile, a B&C Media study found that more than 29 million American millennials prefer having paychecks loaded onto a prepaid card instead of a traditional paper check, partly because of their ease of use while shopping online.

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The Billfish Foundation’s Tag and Release Program

Entrepreneur Merrill Brooks Smith is the founder and CEO of Atlanta, Georgia-based InComm Payments. A boating and fishing enthusiast living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Merrill Brooks Smith supports The Billfish Foundation (TBF).

TBF is an organization dedicated to conserving billfish population across the world. One of its flagship programs is the Tag and Release program.

Launched in 1990, TBF’s Tag and Release program has the largest global database of billfish, with over 260,000 reports. All this data is vital for billfish conservation. It gives scientists insights into the migratory patterns, growth rates, habitat use, and survival rates of billfish. It also gives researchers a foundation for estimating billfish stock levels in the world’s oceans, helping them evaluate the impacts of industrial longlines.

TBF runs the tag and release competition all year round. The competition is open to TBF members. They can fish in the Atlantic, Pacific, or Indian Oceans for various billfish including sailfish, spearfish, swordfish, and black, blue, white, and striped marlin. Once they catch fish, they should tag them for identification, release them, and then fill out a Tagging Data Report. They should then send this report to TBF by mail or enter the information online at www.tagbillfish.org. TBF reviews the submissions and gives Captain and Angler Awards every year to the people who tag the highest number of billfish of each species in each ocean, after crossing the minimum threshold of five fish.

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QR Codes as Payment Options

Experienced executive and financial technology leader Merrill Brooks Smith is a resident of Fort Lauderdale, FL, but serves as CEO of InComm Payments, based in Atlanta, GA. In his three decades running the company, Merrill Brooks Smith has introduced several revolutionary technologies, including alternative payment options such as QR codes.

Quick response (QR) codes are scannable codes that can be read by a scanner app installed onto a mobile device. When using a QR code to process a payment, scanning the code will cause a payment processor to appear on the customer's device. The QR code will automatically populate the transaction cost and merchant’s information. The customer can then choose their secure method of choice to complete the transaction.

Many customers prefer paying by QR code, as sensitive financial information is never visible. Businesses can also offer QR payments without investing in expensive hardware or software. Some types of QR codes also do not require input from the merchant and allow the customer to complete their own transactions. This can be beneficial for small businesses that need to serve more customers but cannot hire additional employees.

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How Gift Cards Improve Retailers' Bottom Lines

Merrill Brooks Smith of Fort Lauderdale, FL serves as the chief executive officer of InComm, a payment processing firm located in Atlanta, GA. Since founding the company in 1992, Merrill Brooks Smith has expanded its offerings to include state-of-the-art digital payment solutions for health care, transportation, and retail loyalty programs such as gift cards.

Gift cards serve as a marketing and sales tool that retailers can use to boost their brand profile and revenue. Individuals who purchase gift cards for others have the potential to introduce a product or company to a new customer. Gift card programs also lack the profit-loss potential of other loyalty schemes, such as discounts and special offers.

Once a gift card is purchased, the retailer retains the revenue, whether or not the item is ever redeemed. Furthermore, when most buyers redeem their gift cards, they spend more than their value. While retailers can choose to create physical cards, digital platforms can also create instant gift cards using codes. In this way, launching a gift card program can cost very little up front and offer a higher payoff.

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InComm Payments Partners with Fintechs to Launch NYC Transit Card

An accomplished entrepreneur living in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Merrill Brooks Smith is the founder and CEO of InComm Payments, headquartered in Atlanta, GA. At the company, Merrill Brooks Smith provides strategic leadership over the design and engineering of prepaid industry payments technology.

InComm Payments enables omnichannel digital connections that facilitate seamless commerce across the world. In January 2022, InComm Payments announced a partnership with Cuentas Inc., a fintech provider, and SDI Black 011 (SDI), a prepaid telecom and digital provider, to distribute transit cards at retail outlets across New York City.

Transit cards support tap-and-go payments, making it easier and more convenient to use public transportation. Transit cards are currently accepted at all subway stations in New York City. InComm, together with Cuentas and SDI, has integrated with the city’s fare payment system so that riders can buy transit cards at local bodegas and retail centers, load them up at the retail locations, or through the Cuentas app, and use them to access transportation conveniently. The cards currently have a pay-per-ride option. The cards will have additional options, including student fares, reduced fares, and special programs.

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EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award Brings Leaders Together

A business administration graduate and successful entrepreneur, Merrill Brooks Smith founded the Atlanta-based payments technology company InComm in 1992. Merrill Brooks Smith resides in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and he received an Ernst and Young (EY) Entrepreneur of the Year in the southeast region award.

The EY Entrepreneur of the year award recognizes ambitious leaders creating and managing successful businesses worldwide. These people become part of a global network of visionaries dedicated to improving the world through innovation and learning.

Entrepreneur of the year winners are members of a multi-industry community of entrepreneurs who receive exclusive access to a lifetime experience, including support from EY resources in its vast ecosystem and alumni events, such as the strategic growth forum. These events gather high-growth entrepreneurs, CEOs, professional fund managers, and C-suite executive representatives - or regional award winners from the US.

The strategic growth forum comprises a series of inspiring panels and keynote speeches, one-to-one meetings, and multiple networking opportunities for business and economic growth. Besides celebrating the entrepreneur of the year US national award, executives attend the forum to learn the latest developments in the strategic transaction marketplace and to meet potential business partners.

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Payments Connect America on Health Care Solutions

Merrill Brooks Smith is an established Fort Lauderdale, FL, entrepreneur who leads InComm Payments in Atlanta, GA, a technology-driven leader in the pre-paid gift card sphere. Focused on entering new markets, Merrill Brooks Smith’s firm announced a partnership with Connect America in early 2022. Connect America is the leading personal emergency response services (PERS) provider in North America. It delivers connective solutions through an AI-assisted digital health platform that facilitates the mobile and in-home monitoring of both aging and at-risk populations. Available services include automatic fall detection and around-the-clock assistance. The end result is health care interventions that reflect integrated analytics and workflows and boost outcomes, even as they reduce costs. InComm Healthcare’s partnership enables the integration of PERS, as well as remote patient monitoring (RPM), within a multi-wallet benefit card. This simplifies health care transactions, as a variety of wellness incentive and supplemental benefit programs can now be accessed through a single card. Funds are seamlessly allocated toward health plan benefits that include healthy foods, over-the-counter items, transportation, and vision and dental care. Benefits also extend to home-delivered produce and meals. The need for such an integrated benefits system is critical, as JAMA Internal Medicine reports that the number of adults over 70 years of age who are homebound increased from 1.6 million to 4.2 million from 2019 to 2020.