{"id":4847,"date":"2020-04-08T17:31:58","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T17:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paymentfacilitator.com\/?p=4847"},"modified":"2021-07-29T18:53:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-29T18:53:43","slug":"protecting-your-merchant-portfolio-from-covid-19-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/expert-perspectives\/underwriting-risk\/protecting-your-merchant-portfolio-from-covid-19-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting Your Merchant Portfolio from COVID-19 Risks"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Our partners at Infinicept recently published a blog post outlining ways payment facilitators can protect their merchant portfolios as the COVID-19 outbreak brings new risks to the payments industry. <\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We share highlights below. For more, check out the full article, <\/strong>New Payments Risks Appear With The COVID-19 Outbreak \u2013 How Can You Protect Your Merchant Portfolio?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The outbreak of a global pandemic is unlike anything the payments industry has previously encountered. But that doesn\u2019t mean the resulting threats themselves are new \u2013 simply that the risk of encountering them is dramatically heightened.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In any crisis situation, bad actors will seek out ways to exploit both fear and the desire to help others. The current environment is ripe for potential fraud and other consumer harm \u2013 an increase in people trying to sell fake products being touted as cures or running charity scams, for example.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What does that mean for payment facilitators? Primarily, it means that our current situation calls for increased vigilance. When you\u2019re monitoring your merchants\u2019 transactions, be alert for warning signs. And now more than ever, be prepared to go deeper into what you find.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For example, it\u2019s likely that transaction volumes will change as small businesses adapt to their own evolving conditions. But it\u2019s important to know whether the changes you\u2019re seeing \u2013 either increases or decreases as well as changes in types of transactions \u2013 are logical, given the merchant\u2019s situation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

An increase in restaurant volume at a time when many eateries are closing their seating areas could mean that a popular restaurant is successfully transitioning to takeout orders and enjoying broad community support. Or, it could be an indicator that the merchant is using their access to the payment system access for unlawful purposes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Further investigation will give you a better idea which is the case. If you find unusual activity, check the merchant\u2019s web site for possible reasons. In the case of the restaurant, are they running a promotion, or have they switched to selling boxes of food, which could account for the increase? Or does it say they\u2019ve simply closed, which would lead to a need to probe deeper into any reason for an increase in volume?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Staying informed about current events and their impact on the local communities where your submerchants operate is critical right now. It will help you put any anomalies into context \u2013 or know when they simply don\u2019t make sense. And when what you\u2019re seeing doesn\u2019t add up, it may be time to call the merchant to ask for an explanation, backed up with proof such as receipts if necessary.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For more tips on protecting your portfolio \u2013 including specific things to watch out for \u2013 check out the post<\/a> on Infinicept\u2019s web site.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The outbreak of a global pandemic is unlike anything the payments industry has previously encountered. But that doesn\u2019t mean the resulting threats themselves are new \u2013 simply that the risk of encountering them is dramatically heightened. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1022],"tags":[195,520,522,646,764],"class_list":["post-4847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-underwriting-risk","tag-covid","tag-merchant-monitoring","tag-merchants","tag-payment-facilitators","tag-risk-management"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4847"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7506,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847\/revisions\/7506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}