Merchant Onboarding Risk - Best Practices
The Platform and its associate processors adhere to industry-standard best practices for reviewing and onboarding merchants.
These are just some of the checks included within our screening process:
IRS EIN/TIN and Legal Name Validation (required for 1099k reporting purposes).
Know Your Customer (KYC) / Know Your Business (KYB) checks.
Sanctions Screening against OFAC and other watchlists.
Screening against Mastercard MATCH file.
To comply with the onboarding review process and completion of the aforementioned checks, data integrity and accuracy of the following data fields is vital to avoid unnecessary pends or account holds within the Platform or its associate processor.
Best Practices
Ensure an optimal onboarding experience and avoid accounts being pended for manual review with the best practices below.
Risk Area | Best Practices |
---|---|
Business |
Legal Business Name - Ensure the legal business name entered matches the name registered with the secretary of state and the IRS.
Tax ID Number - Ensure the 9 or 10 digit government-issued tax identification number is provided. Address - Ensure that the physical street address is entered (PO Boxes are not acceptable). Website - Ensure the merchant website URL is provided.
Business phone - Ensure 10 digit phone number is entered - with no leading country calling code.
|
Account |
Established Date - Ensure an Established Date is entered for when the account was created on the platform.
T&C Version - Ensure the T&C Agreed Version is passed. |
Individuals |
Beneficial Ownership - Ensure that all required beneficial ownership information is entered for all owners with 25% or more ownership interest in the business. Significant Responsibility - Ensure the control prong information is obtained and submitted for the individual with significant responsibility for the entity, if not already covered by an individual owner above. First and Last Name - Ensure that the first and last name entered for all individuals is entered accurately, as it appears on government issued documents. Date of Birth - Ensure accurate DOB. Social Security Number (SSN) - Ensure accurate SSN entered. Business Title (Principal's Title) - Ensure the individual’s professional title is entered.
Ownership % - Ensure a value of 1% or more is entered. Individual’s Address - Ensure that a physical personal or residential street address is entered.
Primary Owner - Ensure a primary owner is designated (even if only entered info for one individual). Individual Phone - Ensure 10-digit phone number is entered - with no leading country calling code. |