API integration is a growing trend in nearly all industries—and the merchant acquiring/financial services space is no exception. From speeding up merchant underwriting to consolidating vendor insights into your internal platform, numerous processes can be improved with API integration.  

 So, what exactly is an API? Put simply, an Application Programming Interface (API) is a technical interface between two software applications, which allows for data exchange. While there is an initial integration cost with APIs, the long-term savings usually make the effort worthwhile if the right API is selected for the job.  

Keep reading to better understand what is needed for a successful API integration, and how G2 APIs can help your organization manage merchant risk.  

  

API Integration: Where to begin?

1. Understanding Business Goals

Successful API integration starts with clarifying your organization’s current priorities and business goals. Depending on what those are, it may make more sense to first integrate with an API that can speed up the underwriting process versus one that adds efficiencies to ongoing monitoring, or vice versa. You can then zero in on workflows that have the potential to benefit most from a time or cost perspective and select an API that provides the needed data/functionality to solve this. 

 2. Workflow and Data Mapping

Once you have identified the workflows that you would like to improve, the next step is to understand the project’s scope. Map out your internal processes to know where to improve them with an API, including which endpoints/API access points will be involved. This can begin as high-level use cases that can be iterated upon to add more detail, including the specific data you would need to send/receive from the API at each integration point. 

 3. Technical and Documentation Analysis

Bringing in someone from your technical team to take a detailed look at API specifications and documentation is critical to successful API integration.  

• Does the API provide data in a format that works for your organization’s infrastructure?  
• Does the API meet the security standards of your organization?  
• What is the effort that will be required to integrate?   

Your technical teams should consider these questions and more to determine project feasibility.  

 4. Sandbox Integration and Testing

Once your team has selected an API that meets your organization’s requirements and has reviewed the specs/documentation, the next step is to integrate with the API’s sandbox environment. API sandboxes allow for non-production integration and testing, and the use of a sandbox is crucial to ensure a smooth “go live” rollout. A thorough sandbox integration and test plan should be created, including edge cases and scenarios that would result in error codes.  

 5. Go Live!

After API sandbox integration has been completed and your team is confident about transitioning into production, it is time to launch! This step should also involve a launch plan to ensure you have accounted for any dependencies on your API partner or within your internal infrastructure for this transition. Now, your organization can start realizing the efficiency and cost-saving benefits that APIs can bring! 

 

 APIs at G2

API integration with G2 enables merchant acquirers and PSPs to improve efficiency, reduce operating costs, and flexibly incorporate G2’s insights into their own platforms. G2’s comprehensive API suite spans the merchant lifecycle, from underwriting to ongoing monitoring. Our teams are happy to help work with you throughout the integration process to better understand your unique use case and how you can best utilize our APIs. 

 From an underwriting perspective, financial institutions can use API integration to reduce the time involved during onboarding, enabling a seamless pipeline for new merchants to increase revenue. G2’s KYCA API and Compass API are often used in conjunction with one another during onboarding to help organizations cut down on hours of manual checks.   

• KYCA API — Automates data collection and produces a thorough report within minutes of performing a request  

• Compass API — Performs an instant calculation of G2’s proprietary, predictive merchant score to help clients quickly screen out merchants that exceed risk thresholds 

 Once an organization decides to board a merchant, that merchant can be submitted to G2 for ongoing monitoring via the MDMX API. Any merchant data updates and portfolio removals are also processed through this API.   

• MDMX API — Eliminates time-consuming spreadsheet uploads and data transfer processes, as well as ensures portfolio alignment between G2 and client internal systems 

 While merchants are under monitoring, G2 Persistent Merchant Monitoring (PMM) alerts for content violations and G2 Transaction Laundering Detection (TLD) alerts for potential fraud. These risk alerts can be integrated into financial institutions’ internal platforms via the PMM/TLD API.   

• PMM/TLD API — Eliminates the need for risk teams to log into separate platforms; actions taken against flagged merchants can be instantly provided back to G2  

  In summary, powerful risk insights throughout the full merchant lifecycle can be plugged directly into your system with G2’s API suite. 

Get Started

 If your organization is a current G2 customer and you are interested in API integration, contact clientservices@g2llc.com for access. To learn more about how G2 can help you uncover hidden risk in your merchant portfolio, click here.