FeeVerify for payment facilitators
A payment facilitator signs up sub-merchants under its own relationship with a sponsor acquirer, and earns the difference between what it charges them and what the sponsor, the schemes and its processor charge it. Most sub-merchants pay a simple rate, while the costs underneath move with every card type, region and scheme change. FeeVerify validates those costs against your agreements and the scheme schedules, and checks each month that sub-merchant pricing still covers them.
What does a payfac pay, and where does the margin leak?
A payfac carries costs at three levels. The sponsor acquirer charges its markup, per-transaction fees and minimums on all sub-merchant volume. The schemes charge transactional fees, programme fees for payment facilitators, and dispute and monitoring fees when fraud or chargebacks run high. A processor or platform provider charges for the technology that runs the programme.
Against that, sub-merchants usually pay one blended rate. A blended rate is set for an average card mix, so a sub-merchant whose customers use premium, commercial or cross-border cards can cost more than it pays, and nobody sees it until the margin report looks wrong. A sub-merchant registered with the wrong merchant category can also clear at the wrong interchange rate on every transaction.
| What you pay or charge | Where it leaks | How FeeVerify checks it |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsor acquirer fees | Markup, per-transaction fees and minimums that drift from the sponsor agreement; volume tiers not applied | Re-costs each transaction against the rates and tiers in the sponsor agreement |
| Scheme fees on sub-merchant volume | Wrong region, product or card type; pass-through marked up or billed twice | Recalculates each fee from the scheme fee schedule and the sponsor agreement |
| Scheme programme, dispute and monitoring fees | Programme fees billed at the wrong level; dispute and monitoring fees nobody reconciles to the cases behind them | Rebuilds each fee from the scheme rules and the transactions or cases that triggered it |
| Interchange and downgrades | Sub-merchants on the wrong merchant category; transactions clearing at a higher tier because data is missing | Flags each affected sub-merchant and transaction with the cause, so it can be fixed at onboarding |
| Processor or platform fees | Per-transaction and per-account fees above the contracted tier, or charged for inactive sub-merchants | Checks each invoice line against the platform contract and your own sub-merchant and transaction counts |
| Sub-merchant pricing | Blended rates that no longer cover cost for some segments; fees in the terms that are never billed | Sets each sub-merchant's true cost beside what it pays, segment by segment |
Four ways FeeVerify protects a payfac's margin
FeeVerify sits as an independent control layer between what your sponsor, the schemes and your platform charge you and what your sub-merchants pay. Looking back, it recovers overcharges and finds revenue that was never billed. Going forward, it shows which sub-merchants and segments earn their keep, so pricing and onboarding can follow the numbers.
Looking back: recover what has leaked
Recover overcharges
Sponsor, scheme and platform billing is broken down and checked against your agreements and the published schedules. Variances come back quantified, sourced and ready to claim.
Bill what sub-merchants owe
Fees in your sub-merchant terms that were never charged, such as chargeback, refund or monthly fees, are found and quantified.
Going forward: price on true cost
Price each segment on true cost
Each month, every sub-merchant's true cost sits beside what it pays. Segments that lose money on a blended rate show up before they grow, and scheme changes are caught as they land.
Negotiate your sponsor and platform terms
Every finding links to the clause, the calculation and the source data, ready for your next sponsor or platform negotiation, or a move to a new one.
None of this needs new headcount. AI does the high-volume analysis across thousands of sub-merchants, and experienced payments specialists sign off every material finding.
Proof in production
FeeVerify is proven on a tier-one cross-border payments business, anonymised here, that runs blended and IC++ acquiring across multiple markets and had no AI-led billing reconciliation before. The diagnostic ran on one month of its real production data and was delivered within 30 days of the data arriving.
A payfac's costs follow from agreements in the same way: a sponsor contract, the scheme schedules and a platform contract. FeeVerify builds rules from them and re-costs every transaction, exactly as it did for that business.
Figures are from an anonymised engagement; the client is not named. The proof page sets out the method and the disclosure.
Getting started
You start with a 30-day diagnostic on one month of your own data, and you see verified recoveries before any recurring fee. A good first scope is your largest market, or the sub-merchant segments whose margin you trust least. The first call agrees that scope and the data we need.
Share your data
Your sponsor, scheme and platform agreements, your sub-merchant pricing and terms, and one month of settlement, invoice and sub-merchant billing files. No integration is needed to start.
30-day diagnostic
Every transaction is re-costed and every sub-merchant's true cost set beside its price. Variances are quantified and linked to the clause behind them, and the findings are reviewed with your team.
Recover and continue
FeeVerify's fee is a success fee on the value you accept, with no ongoing commitment. Optional continuous assurance then checks each new month as it lands.
Pilot terms are agreed in the contract. The how it works page covers each step in more detail.
Questions payment facilitators ask
Our sub-merchants pay a flat rate. Why check the costs underneath?
Because the flat rate is only profitable if the costs underneath stay where you assumed. Scheme fees change, card mix shifts, and a few sub-merchants with premium or cross-border cards can cost more than they pay. FeeVerify sets each sub-merchant's true cost beside its rate, so you can see which ones earn their keep and reprice the ones that do not.
Can FeeVerify find sub-merchants on the wrong merchant category?
Yes. Where a sub-merchant's transactions clear at an interchange rate that does not fit its business, FeeVerify flags it with the transactions behind it. Fixing the category at onboarding stops the cost on every future transaction.
Do you need data on every sub-merchant?
For the cost recovery, FeeVerify needs the transaction fields your fees depend on, such as card type, region, product and merchant category. Sub-merchant identifiers matter if you want each sub-merchant's true cost and a check of its billing. Files containing full card numbers are rejected at upload, and your data is never used to train a model.
How is FeeVerify paid?
You see verified recoveries before any recurring fee. After the 30-day diagnostic, FeeVerify's fee is a success fee on the value you accept, whether that is money back, cost savings or revenue gained, and there is no ongoing commitment. Specific pilot fees and percentages are set in the contract.
Related reading
Start with one month of your own data.
A pilot begins with the agreements that protect both sides, then your contracts and one month of settlement data, scoped with a payments specialist on the first call. The 30-day diagnostic re-costs every transaction against them and shows each variance with its clause, before any recurring fee.