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Michigan Retailers Services

“Can a state retail trade association sustain relevance and revenue by bundling payment processing and insurance services for its member merchants?”

Founded1940
HQ603 South Washington Avenue, Lansing, MI 48933
IndustryVertical SaaS / Retail Associations

The story

Michigan Retailers Services is the services arm of the Michigan Retailers Association, founded in 1940 as a trade association advocacy body. Over time it expanded into a fee-generating services business for its retail member base, notably operating as a registered ISO for Synovus Bank to offer merchant card processing, and separately running insurance programs under RetailersInsurance.com. The embedded finance angle is narrow: it functions as a payment intermediary (ISO) rather than a full-stack fintech, monetizing its member relationships through payment processing commissions and insurance referrals.

Last 12 months

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Product timeline

1940

Michigan Retailers Association founded as a trade association supporting the Michigan retail industry.· pivot

2018

Michigan Retailers Services operating as a registered Independent Sales Organization (ISO) for Synovus Bank, offering merchant card processing under the Merchant Card Processing Agreement v6.0118.· banking

2022

Updated Merchant Card Processing Agreement (v25.1022) issued, reflecting ongoing credit card processing services for Michigan retailers.· banking

The stack

2 layers disclosed in Michigan Retailers Services’s embedded-finance stack

Payments / PSP

Synovus Bank (sponsor acquirer via ISO relationship)

Sponsor bank

in the full report

Accounting gap: none

1 more provider across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.