APIs

The start of all interactions between a merchant and the payment gateway provider is the onboarding process. Swift and sure first steps are not easy to come by in any domain, but the complexity of the financial technology services makes it truly rare.

An intelligent merchant payment processor relies on both man and machine for this first interaction. While the data entry and related regular process can be automated, the risk assessment features require human supervision. An efficient onboarding gives the merchant a satisfying preview of the future of the account relationship. At the other end is the statistic of one in five merchants abandoning the payments facilitator at the onboarding stage, often due to complicated processes as well as extended turnaround time.

A merchant looks for an easy sign-up process, a seamless features integration as well as a comfortable risk underwriting. The dynamic increase in e-commerce today has led to the need of getting payments processed right from day one.

Payment facilitators, while on the lookout for new merchants to board onto their systems, need to be ever vigilant. Abiding by the government regulations as well as the network compliances form a huge part of the onboarding process. KYC as well as underwriting form the other side of the picture, where the merchant credentials are entered into the system and validated. Behaviour profiling as well as scoring systems built into a secure payment gateway protect acquirers from individual as well as organized fraud attempts.The inherent risks in the digital payments system seem to concentrate their presence especially at this first juncture of onboarding.

Toucan Finances has a modular API specifically for onboarding, which is offered both as a SaaS or a licensed product. Our powerful software ensures a real-time, secure onboarding. It is a customizable module that can work with the unique features of your industry and market.

The reputational risks, the compliance violence penalties as well as the expensive chargebacks underline the necessity of due diligence while onboarding. Combing through the online presence of a merchant, ruling out any past violations via a detailed background check, double-checking on the merchant’s terms and conditions as well as business policies, validating the various service providers the merchant uses, are all basic tenets of understanding the nature of its business. In todays’ world of digital payments, these are the levels of research that a payments facilitator undertakes at the onset of a merchant account interaction to ensure smooth future operations. A huge part of this analysis can be undertaken by bots and algorithms, making the whole process swift, sure and smart.

The onboarding part of the merchant journey is where a payment gateway re-assures the merchant. While the payment gateway API will secure the business with its cutting edge financial technology, the merchant can get on with their role of innovations and entrepreneuring to build a business empire.