Merchant Services Company Expanding to Energy Brokering

Banc Certified Merchant Services, LLC, d/b/a Certified Utility Services, has applied for Ohio electric and natural gas broker licenses.

For electricity, Banc Certified Merchant Services is seeking to serve commercial, mercantile, and industrial customers in all service areas. For natural gas, Banc Certified Merchant Services is seeking to serve all customer classes in all service areas.

Banc Certified Merchant Services has been in business since 1999 providing financial and payment processing services to various companies across the United States, currently serving over 36,000 clients.

Its products and services include credit card processing, check services, wire transfer and ACH services along with internet gateway portal and shopping cart services. Banc Certified Merchant Services is directly registered with Visa and Master Card and is sponsored by US Bank.

In early 2012, the company decided that utility services would be a good fit with its product offerings, due to the "very similar sales concept."

Banc Certified Merchant Services sees brokering energy commodities as adding value to its clients served in the deregulated energy markets.