Blog

Gambling, Gadgets, and The Risk to Your Merchant Portfolio

Bogus “gadget” websites are putting merchant acquirers at risk for card network fines and assessments. G2 analysts have seen a recent increase in illegal gambling sites laundering their transactions through gadget sites—usually a simple site selling a few select items, often consumer electronics, power tools, or sporting goods. Transaction laundering—one merchant processing payment card transactions… read more

Post Date: Posted on November 2, 2022November 2, 2022 Post Categories: Merchant Monitoring, Money Laundering, Online Gambling

New Nicotine Regulations May Affect Payment Providers

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hints that it may increase its nicotine regulations after electronic cigarette enterprise, Juul Labs, Inc. hooked a generation on vaping.  Last month, the FDA ordered all currently marketed Juul products to be removed from the U.S. market. The agency determined there is not enough evidence to “assess the… read more

Post Date: Posted on July 25, 2022 Post Categories: FDA, Merchant Monitoring, Merchant Risk

New Gun Kit Regulations Place Acquirers at Risk

On August 24, 2022, gun kits that can assemble into full unmarked firearms—known as “ghost guns”—will be subject to the same regulations as commercially sold, fully assembled weapons. The new rule set by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) aims to ban the manufacturing of ghost guns and help serialize weapons already… read more

Post Date: Posted on June 23, 2022 Post Categories: ATF, Gun Kits, Illicit Goods

KYC Automation: You’re sold…but now how to implement?

You are convinced—automating your merchant Know Your Customer (KYC) due diligence process will greatly benefit your business. What now? How do you go from your current, manual processes to automation?  The first step is picking a vendor, and to do that, you need to clearly understand your requirements. Are you trying to improve compliance, or… read more

Post Date: Posted on September 30, 2021September 30, 2021 Post Categories: Merchant Boarding, Merchant Underwriting

Comply by October 15: New Adult Merchant Content Guidelines

Acquirers must comply by October 15, 2021 with Mastercard’s extended Specialty Merchant Registration requirements—that aim to crackdown on unauthorized and illegal adult content. According to Mastercard, the updated rules require acquiring banks to “certify that the seller of adult content has effective controls in place to monitor, block and, where necessary, take down all illegal… read more

Post Date: Posted on September 24, 2021September 29, 2021 Post Categories: High-risk Merchants, Merchant Monitoring

KYC Automation: Build? Buy? Wait?

Automating KYC due diligence typically requires help from a third-party provider or an in-house team to develop the software for you. As a merchant acquirer, you might not have the time or resources to build the solution yourself, given that most of your time is spent on gaining new clients. So, the question is, when… read more

Post Date: Posted on July 23, 2021July 29, 2021 Post Categories: Know Your Customer, Merchant Onboarding

Learn From The Pros:
Build A Winning Merchant Portfolio

At the championship level, winning sports teams are carefully constructed—each athlete hand-selected based on their physical ability, past athletic achievements, and overall reputation. This process of player evaluation has created sports dynasties like Brazil’s national football team, who won back-to-back World Cups in 1958 and 1962, before winning a third in 1970.  What if you… read more

Post Date: Posted on June 17, 2021June 18, 2021 Post Categories: Know Your Customer, Merchant Underwriting

Manual KYC is Jeopardizing Your New Merchant Accounts

You want to scale your merchant acquiring business, and new merchants want fast underwriting, so why not just stamp “Approved!” on every new application and enjoy a meteoric rise in revenue?  We all know the reasons: Conducting Know Your Customer (KYC) due diligence is required. Even if it wasn’t required, you want to do it… read more

Post Date: Posted on February 7, 2021 Post Categories: Know Your Customer, Merchant Onboarding

Latin America Merchant Acquiring:
Liberalisation and Growth

The Latin America region has enjoyed strong growth in merchant acquiring volumes and the average number of transactions per adult over the past few years, according to a new report from Verisk Financial Research. Increasing volumes have compensated for reductions in the maximum MSCs. This trend will probably persist: continued growth in card uptake and usage, spurred… read more

Post Date: Posted on December 2, 2020April 21, 2021 Post Categories: Merchant Onboarding, Merchant Underwriting

Understanding Merchant Acquiring Risk: Assessments

A new report from Verisk Financial Research looks across the landscape for merchant acquiring risk in North America, including trends, developments, and opportunities. The extract below, drawing on insights from G2, looks at the significant risks facing acquirers in the e-commerce ecosystem from card networks’ assessments. An assessment is an alert raised by the card… read more

Post Date: Posted on October 6, 2020April 21, 2021 Post Categories: Merchant Onboarding, Merchant Underwriting