Birch Communications Teams With Bank of America Merchant Services for Electronic Payments Processing

ATLANTA, March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Birch Communications, a leading IP-based telecom and managed services provider for small- and medium-sized businesses, has teamed up with Bank of America Merchant Services on the first of many business focused financial services solutions. This relationship allows Birch to offer its business customers with specially negotiated pricing on debit and credit card transaction processing.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110606/CG14010LOGO)

"Birch is proud to work with Bank of America Merchant Services, who is the number one-rated electronic payments processor in the industry," said Vincent Oddo, Birch President and CEO. "This is a perfect fit for Birch. By combining Bank of America Merchant Services' payment offerings with Birch's reliable managed communications and IT services, including broadband Internet service, we will deliver solutions that drive greater efficiencies and savings for our business customers."

"Both Birch and Bank of America Merchant Services each are recognized as leading providers of business services, serving small- and medium-sized companies," said Chris Aversano, Birch COO. "The financial transactions and communications services of our business customers are mission-critical, and both companies have a strong track record of providing business customers the personal attention and service they deserve, and require."

"In Birch Communications, we immediately saw where our payment solutions could support the needs of their diverse customers, and we are pleased to enter this relationship," said Dane James, SVP, Referral Partner Sales, Bank of America Merchant Services. "Our dedicated relationship management team is focused on providing Birch and Birch's business customers a robust and competitive set of payment processing options, featuring competitive pricing, high system reliability, simple account set up and outstanding customer service. The synergy of our respective offerings will deepen their customer engagement and generate breakthrough strategies. We're looking forward to helping Birch achieve their goals for years to come."

About Birch Communications
Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Birch Communications provides managed communications and information technology services to a target market of small- and medium-sized businesses in select metropolitan areas within 38 states across the United States. Birch services include local and long distance voice, broadband Internet access, T1, PRI, bonded T1, integrated PRI, mobile voice and data, e-mail, web-hosting, voicemail, prepaid, and many other communications and information technology services. Birch voice and data services are, in most cases, delivered using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology on the company's secure IP-Network rather than over the public Internet.

According to Inc. 500|5000 magazine in its 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2011 rankings, Birch was one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. In 2010, Birch was also named the 7th fastest growing private business in Atlanta, and one of the Top 100 Private Companies in Atlanta in 2010 and 2011, by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Please visit www.birch.com for more information.

About Bank of America Merchant Services
Bank of America Merchant Services is a premiere payments company providing the technology, innovative products and industry track record of First Data with the relationship strength, geographical coverage and prominent global brand of Bank of America to serve existing and future clients. This has made Bank of America Merchant Services the number one-rated electronic payments processor in the industry (Based on bankcard, other credit, and PIN debit sales volume and transactions. Per The Nilson Report, March 2011, Issue 967). Bank of America Merchant Services delivers a comprehensive suite of payment solutions – including point of sale payments, gift card and loyalty programs, ecommerce solutions, terminals and point-of-sale solutions – to merchants of all sizes. The company has an expansive geographic footprint with more than 350,000 merchant relationships across the United States, processing more than 8 billion transactions every year. For more information, visit www.bankofamerica.com/merchantservices.

SOURCE Birch Communications