Finix Launches Tool to Onboard Merchants for Payment Acceptance

Full-stack payment processor Finix has launched a solution that allows businesses to onboard merchants for payment acceptance in a streamlined way.

The new Merchant Underwriting solution also ensures that the businesses remain current with evolving regulations from governments, card networks and sponsor banks, the company said in a Wednesday (April 17) press release.

“We developed this technology to increase efficiency without compromising risk management for our own underwriting as a payment processor,” Richie Serna, CEO and co-founder of Finix, said in the release. “Now, we’re launching it publicly to enable thousands of merchants to be onboarded within seconds versus minutes or even hours.”

Merchant Underwriting automates underwriting workflows to streamline what is normally a labor-intensive process, according to the release. It collects and verifies the necessary information via pre-built brandable forms.

The solution includes tools for automated scoring and decisions; reporting and management; third-party underwriting reports; and case management, the release said.

It also reduces the risk of non-compliance for businesses operating in the United States and Canada, per the release. It verifies know-your-customer (KYC) documentation, screens for sanctions and watchlists, and analyzes reputational risks and bank accounts for anti-money laundering (AML) purposes.

“Merchant underwriting is risky business: not only are there hefty penalties for failing to adhere to legal requirements, but onboarding the wrong business can put organizations at risk of significant financial loss and reputational damage,” Serna said in the release. “It’s a highly complicated process that has significant repercussions if not executed flawlessly.”

TransUnion found that 13.5% of transactions associated with online account creation — in other words, the point of onboarding — were possibly fraudulent. The fraud was associated with account signup, registration and loan origination.

Across auto loans, bank credit cards and retail credit cards in the U.S., exposure to those scams stood at more than $3 billion at the end of 2023.

In another recent development, Finix and convenience store commerce platform Vroom Delivery said April 8 that they teamed up to create an online payment solution designed for the convenience store sector.

Powered by Finix’s vertically integrated payment solution and other third-party machine-learning fraud prevention systems, the tool, Pay360, allows for the secure online sale of age-restricted products.