POS Vendors

A third-party servicer (TPS) is a company that provides point-of-sale processing services to medium-size and smaller merchants. Becoming a SIGIS member and implementing the IIAS standard into a TPS’s point of sale system allows a simpler streamlined certification process for merchants that are using a SIGIS certified POS system. Requires minimum Tier 3 membership.

Membership in SIGIS offers TPS access to the following programs:.

SIGIS IIAS Transaction and Data Retention Specification

The SIGIS Specification outlines the requirements needed for merchants, acquirers, processors, card issuers and plan administrators to support an IIAS.

TPS IIAS Certification

The key requirement for a company to qualify as a TPS whose merchants may take advantage of the streamlined certification is that the TPS provides and operates all of the following services/systems on behalf of its merchant clients:

  • Inventory management
  • Cash register/POS transaction processing
  • Payment card processing

The TPS must have an established relationship with an acquiring processor for purposes of certifying the POS and payment card processing. If the TPS's software allows the merchant to make changes that will affect IIAS processing after the software is installed, its merchant clients who use that software will not be able to use the streamlined certification. In those cases, the merchant may certify using the standard SIGIS IIAS Merchant Self-Assessment form.

Once the POS Vendor is IIAS certified with SIGIS, merchants that use a certified-TPS solution version and acquirer, and are a SIGIS Member, can certify with SIGIS by completing a simplified, TPS Merchant certification form.

To become IIAS certified, a TPS completes a similar IIAS certification process as merchants. This requires completion of a TPS Self-Assessment Certification Form, a technical testing certification by the TPS’s acquirer, use of the SIGIS Eligible Product List, and arrangements to support transaction data retention/retrieval. A TPS will not be permitted to claim that it supports IIAS transactions using the SIGIS standard until it has been certified to the IIAS standards developed and approved by SIGIS.

SIGIS provides additional support through our Help Desk that is available to answer any questions regarding the programs listed above.

Related FAQs

A TPS may update the contact email address for a certification in any status without changing other information on the form. To do so, please follow these steps.

  1. Log in to the Members Area
  2. Select the “Certification Forms link” on the right hand side of the page; a new window will open.
  3. Click on the “TPS Self Assessment” Tab
  4. Click on the “Online Form” link next to the certification you wish to update
  5. Scroll down to the “TPS Contact Email”, make the appropriate change and click the “Save Email” button.

All new TPS Merchant approval requests will be routed to the new email address.

TPS’s that wish to update a certification that has approved merchants should contact SIGIS at help@sig-is.org.  The TPS will be asked to complete the “TPS Change Questionnaire” document.  Upon review, the TPS will instructed on required steps.  In some cases a simplified process may be available so as to not impact the approved merchants. Each situation will be evaluated based on the info provided in the TPS Change Questionnaire document.

To become IIAS certified, a POS vendor completes a similar IIAS certification process as merchants. This requires completion of a TPS Self-Assessment Certification Form, a technical testing certification by the TPS’s acquirer, use of the SIGIS Eligible Product List, and arrangements to support transaction data retention/retrieval. A TPS's acquirer will review the TPS Self-Assessment Certification Form and submit it to SIGIS for approval. A TPS will not be permitted to claim that it supports IIAS transactions using the SIGIS standard until it has been certified to the IIAS standards developed and approved by SIGIS. 

For step by step instruction on how to complete the TPS Self Assessment please click Completing the TPS Self-Assessment form.