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NewEU AI Act high-risk system obligations for payment and credit firms — August 2026 deadline·UpdatedVisa Agentic Ready global expansion to APAC and LatAm confirmed — Q3 2026 rollout·AlertPSD3 and PSR provisional political agreement reached — national transposition begins 2026·InsightECB digital euro preparatory phase complete — enabling regulation expected late 2026·RegulatorySAMA Open Banking transitions from sandbox to full licensing — first fintechs licensed April 2026·AlertCBUAE updated AML/CFT/CPF guidance for licensed financial institutions — effective April 2026·NewVisa VAMP acquirer monitoring programme — new CNP fraud and dispute thresholds from January 2026·RegulatoryFCA CASS 15 safeguarding rules for payment institutions — in effect May 2026·NewEU AI Act high-risk system obligations for payment and credit firms — August 2026 deadline·UpdatedVisa Agentic Ready global expansion to APAC and LatAm confirmed — Q3 2026 rollout·AlertPSD3 and PSR provisional political agreement reached — national transposition begins 2026·InsightECB digital euro preparatory phase complete — enabling regulation expected late 2026·RegulatorySAMA Open Banking transitions from sandbox to full licensing — first fintechs licensed April 2026·AlertCBUAE updated AML/CFT/CPF guidance for licensed financial institutions — effective April 2026·NewVisa VAMP acquirer monitoring programme — new CNP fraud and dispute thresholds from January 2026·RegulatoryFCA CASS 15 safeguarding rules for payment institutions — in effect May 2026·

Acquiring & Acceptance

Card acquiring strategy, merchant onboarding frameworks, SoftPOS deployment, omnichannel acceptance architecture, chargeback management and high-risk merchant acquiring.

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Merchant Onboarding and Underwriting

Merchant onboarding is where the most consequential risk decisions are made by acquirers and payment facilitators: and where commercial pressure toward speed conflicts with the obligation to know who is being onboarded. We work with acquirers and PayFacs to design onboarding flows that raise automated approval rates on clean applications while applying targeted scrutiny where risk indicators warrant it. This includes KYB framework design, risk scoring models, ultimate beneficial ownership analysis and fraud pattern detection.

SoftPOS and Omnichannel Acceptance

The card acceptance infrastructure has changed more in the last five years than in the preceding two decades. SoftPOS solutions that turn a merchant's Android device into a contactless acceptance point are now certified under PCI CPoC and EMVCo standards, removing the last functional gap between dedicated hardware and software-only acceptance. We advise on SoftPOS deployment strategy, PIN on Glass implementation, multi-channel transaction coordination and unified acceptance across in-store, online and in-app environments.

Chargeback and Dispute Management

A significant proportion of chargebacks received by merchants can be prevented. Weak transaction descriptors generate friendly fraud disputes where no actual fraud occurred. Absence of 3DS authentication means the merchant bears fraud liability that 3DS would have shifted to the issuer. For merchants with elevated chargeback ratios, the consequences escalate through scheme monitoring programmes to monthly fines of tens of thousands and potential exclusion. We help merchants and acquirers design prevention programmes and representation frameworks that achieve 40–70% win rates on disputable reason codes.

PayFac and Marketplace Payments

The payment facilitator model allows software platforms and marketplaces to onboard sub-merchants and disburse their settlements under their own master merchant agreement, bearing underwriting risk in exchange for a larger share of payment economics. We help platforms evaluate whether PayFac makes commercial and regulatory sense, structure the sponsoring bank conversation, design sub-merchant underwriting frameworks and manage scheme registration requirements for Visa, Mastercard and regional schemes.

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