ETA Releases Fourth Edition of Merchant and ISO Underwriting & Risk Monitoring Guidelines for Payments Companies

Washington, D.C. - August 10, 2020 – The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), the global trade association for the payments technology industry, released today the fourth edition of the ETA Guidelines on Merchant and ISO Underwriting and Risk Monitoring.  The revised guidelines incorporate recent industry rule changes and trends related to risk monitoring that help mitigate risk in the U.S. card acceptance ecosystem.

The ETA Underwriting Guidelines, launched in 2014, were developed to provide guidance to payments technology companies, including Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), payment processors and merchant acquirers, in maintaining strong and modern risk management programs.

“Robust and dynamic risk management is essential to the health of the payments technology ecosystem,” said ETA CEO Jodie Kelley. “ETA and its members are committed to growing and maintaining world-class risk management programs. Through our ETA Underwriting Guidelines, as well as our Self-Regulation Program, we are proud to provide this industry the guidance and best practices they need to succeed.”

The ETA Underwriting Guidelines are grounded in the Operating Regulations of the various payment networks, existing governmental regulations, and industry best practices for risk management. They are developed by ETA in conjunction with the ETA Risk, Fraud and Security Committee, which is made up of legal, policy and industry experts. Changes in 2020 include: updates related to ecommerce; COVID; merchant registration; privacy; best practices for identifying additional red flags when evaluating merchants; and updates regarding the FinCEN Beneficial Ownership CDD program.

The Guidelines also serve as the core of ETA’s Self-Regulation Program (SRP), which provides ISOs, payment facilitators and acquirers the ability to demonstrate reliability and industry acumen by attesting that they adopt and utilize either the ETA Guidelines on Merchant and ISO Underwriting and Risk Monitoring or the ETA Payment Facilitator Guidelines.

The ETA Underwriting Guidelines are available to ETA members. ETA will host a webinar on September 15, 2020 with legal, policy and industry experts to outline the notable changes to the fourth edition of the Guidelines.

About ETA

The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) is the global trade association representing more than 500 payments and technology companies. ETA members make commerce possible by processing more than $6 trillion in purchases in the U.S. and deploying payments innovation to merchants and consumers.

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