Interview

Constant changes in regulations demand a future-proof payments platform

Thursday 13 October 2022 12:43 CET | Editor: Raluca Constantinescu | Interview

We sat down with Sunil Jhamb, CEO and Founder of WLPayments, to learn more about the impact of new rules and regulations on the online payments space.

For the past couple of years, the payments space has been witnessing significant changes in rules and regulations from the authorities. How is WLPayments managing these changes? 

While working at GlobalCollect, I identified the gaps in the online payments industry, and many were related to these new changes. At WLPayments, we were able to address those gaps during the design phase of our platform architecture. We focused our efforts on building a modular infrastructure, which now allows us to adapt and build effective solutions for the dynamic payments landscape with flexibility and speed. 

Can you give examples of new changes and regulations and their impact on online payments? 

To start with a technical change, we see that the shift from 6- to 8-digit BINs can significantly impact the day-to-day operations of large merchants as they are more likely to employ BIN-based transaction routing. When the needed changes and updates are not implemented or if they are implemented incorrectly, it can lead to more declined transactions, a lower success rate, and, thus, less revenue for the merchant. 

Moreover, there are continuing changes concerning SCA and 3DS. A significant change is due on 15 October 2022, when the card schemes discontinue support for 3DS1 globally. This change will considerably impact many merchants who do not have their 3DS strategy mapped out. 

Where does WLPayments fit into this process? 

At WLPayments, we take care of the merchant’s payment flow, working as an extension of their business. As online payments become increasingly global, we must adapt to different markets to offer our solution worldwide. This includes being compliant with the ever-changing payment rules and regulations and scaling fast where it is needed. As an example, look at the adoption and changes in 3DS. It is a global standard, but the implementation and changes happen locally at different moments in time. With our modular infrastructure, we can adapt and develop solutions as soon as regulations are revised. 

You say that WLPayments is an extension of the merchant's business; does this apply to regulations only? 

In essence, we are a payment orchestration platform. We provide solutions to ensure merchants are compliant with the regulatory framework. We also take care of transaction routing, chargeback management, reconciliation, integrations of new payment methods, and other aspects of payment orchestration in helping merchants achieve the best conversion possible. 

 

Is this relevant to banks as well? 

We see that traditional banks face tremendous challenges in managing regulatory changes. Their legacy infrastructure makes it more complex, if not impossible, to adapt and implement the required changes quickly – both from a regulatory perspective and merchant and market demand perspective. 

How could WLPayments help solve these challenges? 

Banks, acquirers, and PSPs could use our white-label platform without doing an extensive integration. They use our solution that sits on top of their existing architecture and is up and running within a week, if needed. All our APIs, portals, templates are set up with their company’s logo, look, and feel. 

What do you expect to happen after the sunset of 3DS1? 

We expect many payment processors and issuers are not ready with the required changes to prevent payment declines leading to a lower success rate. We have been working with our merchants to ensure that all transactions will be authenticated per the new rules. These changes require specific knowledge and technical solutions, like our proprietary solution, Flex 3DS, which we developed in 2021. 

Besides the 3DS solution, you also developed a Chargeback Management Panel. Could you shed some light on it? 

Through our partnership with Ethoca, WLPayments offers merchants direct access to all the relevant and enriched chargeback data in the Merchant Portal. The time window before a dispute notification turns into a chargeback is usually less than 24 hours. Searching for the correct transaction data can be a cumbersome process with hundreds of transactions and relatively limited information. 

So, how does this help the merchants? 

Merchants no longer have to collect information from multiple systems and further slice and dice the data when managing chargebacks. Thanks to machine learning, merchants can get advice, set rules, and execute refunds and blacklisting fully automated – all this can be done at one place only. The advantages for the merchants are clear: no human error, lower costs, and actionable insights. Eventually, merchants’ risk appetite grows when they can manage the risks and chargebacks. 

This is how we help our customers to grow their business. We grow when our customers grow! 

About Sunil Jhamb 

Sunil Jhamb is the CEO and Founder of WLPayments, a trusted global payments platform. Sunil has over 20 years of experience in consulting and strategy, and as a winner of MPE Influencer of the Year 2019, Sunil is an authority on international payments. Before this, Sunil founded Newgen Payments and worked at GlobalCollect as the global planning and strategy director – developing corporate strategies and driving revenue opportunities globally. 

 

About WLPayments 

WLPayments offers an acquirer-agnostic payment orchestration platform for ISOs, PSPs, acquirers, banks, and online merchants. WLPayments offers its partners a modern and modular platform with many innovative, conversion-boosting features, taking care of all their payment challenges.


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Keywords: regulation, online payments
Categories: Payments & Commerce
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Countries: World
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Payments & Commerce






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