Online payment processing is impossible without the processes of merchant onboarding and merchant underwriting. Aggregators and payment facilitators have worked hard to streamline these processes so merchants can begin processing online payments as quickly as possible, often within moments of submitting an application to an underwriter.
Difficulties in Merchant Onboarding
Originally, merchant onboarding was a complicated process that could take several days. Applications were completed and submitted manually, reviewed by an underwriter, and manually configured in the payment gateway. Errors were common and could lengthen the process. Even when underwriters developed online applications, the process could still take 24 hours.
Over time, software vendors began streamlining automated merchant onboarding to simplify the process for merchants and underwriters. Two approaches were developed that allowed merchants to obtain MIDs and start processing payments within minutes. First, special APIs were developed for merchant data submission. Second, some underwriters started issuing pre-assigned MIDs to payment aggregators.
For more information about merchant account underwriting and merchant underwriting guidelines, please, feel free to contact us.
