Transaction Network Services acquires Transpoll Offline Polling Service

TNS provides transaction transport solutions to the UKs acquiring banks, card processors, and merchants. This strategic acquisition will enhance its specialist point-of-sale division and make TNS one of the leading independent polling bureaux in the UK. The acquisition means that TNS will be responsible for the overnight polling of point-of-sale terminals to enable the collection, processing and delivery of offline transactions to UK acquirers for settlement. Offline terminals will be polled throughout the UK between the hours of midnight and 6am, 364 days a year. As part of the deal TNS will also operate the Transpoll File Transfer Protocol (FTP) service, which enables merchants to operate their own back-office terminal polling before batch transactions are formatted into a standard APACS 29 file. Once this is completed, the transactions are transported by TNS for acquirer validation and settlement. A specialist TNS team will provide problem resolution support services to ensure the successful polling of the terminal population. These include the notification of retail terminals that fail to poll, summary reporting to aid financial reconciliation, and a ‘Hot Card’ file that is downloaded into the terminal to help combat fraud.