“High Risk” Is Broken We Keep Classifying Businesses When We Should Be Measuring the Risk Inside Them "High risk should be the conclusion of a risk assessment—not the starting assumption based on an industry label." - Noah Fitzgerald, CPP, CRO Qredible, Inc. After 30+ Years in Payments, I Think We Need to Have an […]
The Death of MCC Codes We Cannot Build the Future of Merchant Acceptance Around Four Digits ""After more than 30 years in payments, I believe one of the biggest constraints on our industry's future is something we've become so accustomed to using that we've stopped questioning it." - Noah Fitzgerald, CPP, CRO Qredible, Inc. […]
Why Products Matter More Than Businesses The Next Evolution of Merchant Risk Is Happening at the Product Level. ""You cannot fully understand the risk of a merchant without understanding the products behind the merchant." - Noah Fitzgerald, CPP, CRO Qredible, Inc. Introduction For decades, merchant underwriting has started with the business. Who owns it? […]
Why Merchant Underwriting Hasn't Changed in Twenty Years Commerce Evolved. Risk Evolved. But Underwriting Didn't. "The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence—it is to act with yesterday's logic." – Peter Drucker Introduction Over the last twenty years, nearly every aspect of commerce has undergone a fundamental transformation. Consumers now purchase […]
The Death of the MCC Code Why Industry Classification No Longer Predicts Merchant Risk For more than forty years, merchant underwriting has relied on a simple assumption: If you know what type of business someone operates, you know the risks associated with that merchant. That assumption was once reasonable. Today, it's becoming one of […]
Why Merchant Underwriting Hasn't Changed in Twenty Years—And Why That Should Concern Every Bank, Processor, and Payment Facilitator For more than two decades, the payments industry has invested billions of dollars in improving merchant onboarding. We've digitized applications. We've automated document collection. We've integrated KYC, OFAC, sanctions screening, beneficial ownership verification, fraud detection, credit scoring, […]
Determining the risk profile of a business feels like solving a complex puzzle with missing pieces. For payment processors, banks, and financial institutions, evaluating which merchants represent acceptable risks involves careful calculations that balance potential rewards against possible losses. This decision-making process becomes even more intricate when assessing merchants in regulated industries like cannabis, CBD, […]
"Sorry, we can no longer process payments for your business type." These words will strike fear into any entrepreneur in a regulated industry. Behind this dreaded statement often lies a simple four-digit number: Merchant Category Codes (MCC). Despite their small size, MCCs carry enormous weight in determining which businesses can access payment processing services and […]
