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Merchant Agreements: Clauses That Protect an Acquirer or PSP from Transaction Laundering
What Visa and Mastercard require in a merchant agreement and which extra clauses close the gap against transaction laundering: no payments for third parties, a register of sites, suspension of payouts, termination and recovery of fines.
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Payment Facilitators, Aggregators and ISOs: Who Is Responsible for Sub-Merchants
A payment company onboards many small sellers under one agreement with a bank. If one of them breaks the rules, it is not only the seller who answers. We explain in plain words how a PayFac (also known as a payment aggregator), an ISO and a marketplace differ, who is responsible to Visa and Mastercard…
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KYC and KYB for Payment Providers: Building a Risk-Based Customer Due Diligence Programme
Know your customer (KYC) and know your business (KYB) are the checks a payment company runs on its clients before and during the relationship. Banks, card schemes and supervisors judge you by how well you do them. From 10 July 2027 one EU regulation, the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR), replaces the different national rules. This…
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Transaction Laundering and Miscoding: The Hidden Threats to Your Fintech Business
Two linked threats can cost a payment company its card scheme access: transaction laundering and miscoding. In the first, an illicit merchant processes payments through a legitimate merchant’s account. In the second, a wrong merchant category code hides what the merchant really does. Visa and Mastercard hold acquirers responsible for their merchants, and acquirers pass…
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EMI and Payment Institution Licence in the EU, UK and Canada
A payments business starts with choosing a regime. In the EU it is a PI or EMI licence, in the UK FCA (UK Financial Conduct Authority) authorisation, in Canada registration as a payment service provider with the Bank of Canada. We cover capital, timelines, safeguarding and what PSD3 changes. Minimum capital in the EU is…
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How Banks Block Fintech Startup Accounts and how to Avoid it
Why banks block fintech accounts, which actions trigger it and what to do in advance to keep your account stable.