Category: Archive | Page 39

News Roundup: Partnerships and Launches from Apple, Airbnb, Stripe and More

In a roundup of this week’s news, AirPlus International and Airbnb are joining forces, NMI has added features to its platform for payment facilitators, and Stripe has rounded up handy tools for its merchants.

4 Things PFs Need to Know About Anti-Money Laundering

Government regulations laid out by the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act require businesses to follow certain practices to avoid facilitating criminal activity, even inadvertently. Together, these regulations form the backbone of anti-money laundering efforts in the U.S.

These government regulations are supported by card brand rules that provide direction on payment facilitators’ specific roles and responsibilities. This is an area that can be daunting to many new and even seasoned payment facilitators.

Dr. Heather Mark, Ph.D., director of compliance for ProPay, shared four critical AML practices the payment facilitators she meets do not always fully understand.

Digital Wallets: A Deep Dive into the New CFPB Rule

Buried within the 1,689-page Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) “final rule,” or Prepaid Access Rule, are provisos that pertain to digital wallets. In a previous article, I shared the basic outlines of the rule itself and how it relates to digital payments. But how worried should payment facilitators who operate a digital wallet be?

Adyen Signs Two New Marketplace Agreements

Both Etsy and Freelancer.com have tapped Adyen to power their payment solutions.

The Etsy partnership covers the U.S., Europe, and “other markets” where Etsy operates, according to the announcement. The company said it has been operating in China, Europe, India and North America for Freelancer.com.

While one marketplace connects buyers and sellers of handmade goods and the other service providers and their customers, in some ways, the payments needs of both are similar.

DocuSign Sees “Practically Limitless” Opportunity in Payments

Coming to agreement and collecting signatures is often just the first step for many businesses such as property management services, insurance agencies and contractors. The next step is getting paid.

Seeing a massive opportunity to add value for its more than 250,000 business clients, DocuSign is beta testing an integrated payment capability it hopes to officially launch next year.

Leading PF Shopify Turns Customer Service into Sales for Its Merchants Using Facebook Messenger

Part of the beauty of shopping in a brick-and-mortar store is the ability to speak with a person who can help you solve a specific problem or just help you find what you’re looking for. What if you could make that personal engagement happen for your merchants’ e-commerce customers as well? By integrating with Facebook Messenger, Shopify is doing just that.

Despite PF Advantage on New Mastercard Merchant Fee, Some PFs Preach Caution

In the payments world, few things are as confusing or as controversial as network fees. The economics of a transaction routed over Visa or Mastercard rails could amount to a college-level course.

Rates for interchange, the amounts that the networks collect from retailers on behalf of card issuers, are often on merchants’ minds as they look for the most economical transaction routing options. But in recent years, the fees that the networks keep for themselves have generated plenty of ink.

Is Square Changing Its Stripes? APIs Target Stripe and Braintree Approach to ISVs

In a wide-ranging presentation to investors and other audience members at the Jefferies 2016 West Coast Payments Conference on Tuesday (Sept. 27), Square CFO Sarah Friar commented on the company’s growth plans and future opportunities for expansion.

Her remarks make one thing clear: Square sees its reach as expanding far beyond accepting payments with a little white card reader. And it sees working with other software providers as one way to provide its products and services to more merchants.

Unregistered Third Party Regpack’s Exposure Of 324,000 Transactions Proves A Cautionary Tale For PFs

A July exposure of transaction records from 899 submerchants serviced by payment facilitator BlueSnap highlights an important lesson for PFs.

In addition to making sure their own houses are in order, they bear responsibility for their submerchants and service providers as well.
PFs who control all aspects of the card entry, where it’s impossible for a transaction to enter outside of their interface, may be able to certify compliance on behalf of all their submerchants. However, if any submerchant or service providers could conceivably get access to card data, the PF must ensure they are certified and registered. BlueSnap had to learn that the hard way.

Tipalti Acts Like A PF In More Ways Than Taking Payments

Tipalti does a lot of things a PF does, except take credit card payments.
The B2B accounts payable software service accepts six payment methods and does pre-payment checks against AML and OFAC lists and enables global payments, herding 26,000 payments rules and 120 currencies while streamlining supplier onboarding and providing everything but tax returns to its clients.

Tipalti just got $14 million in funding and chief marketing officer Rob Israch says accepting card payments is most likely in its future. It’s another example of a perfect candidate to become a PF, but Israch says because it uses so many partners to do what it does, when it offers card payments to suppliers, freelancers, etc., the facilitation would most likely be outsourced. The company helps pay approximately 750,000 suppliers and remits $2 billion annually.