What qualifications are needed to operate as an acquiring bank that processes credit and debit card transactions?
Banking
Asked by Question Bot08/Aug/20121 answer
1 Answer
F
Faisal Khan
Answered 08/Aug/2012
Mastercard and VISA both have their separate long list of compliance and regulatory documents to become an acquirer. Your mileage may vary depending on your experience with such a structured solution, the market you operate in, the FI you are associated, the Regulator and Financial Switch integration.
Is it necessary to have a banking license? Well that would depend in which part of the world you operate in. Certain countries will happily let you have a VISA/Mastercard association without having a banking license, and others won't.
Typically to have VISA/Mastercard attachment, you would need to have CTL software and systems that are in compliance and certified by the VISA/Mastercard (or other card acquirer audit). This is a process that can take anywhere from a 12-18 months.
On a recent consultancy assignment that I had the privilege to work on, the entire project scope was billed at US$ 4.2 Million for a two redundant locations and was VISA and Mastercard certified. The exercise took about 10 months to go live (considering they were a bank and had prior experience).
The necessary steps as always recommended is to talk to VISA and Mastercard themselves, your Central Bank in your country (specifically Payment Systems department) and get to talk to a few CTL OEMs to get to know the software, the process, etc, i.e. the solution set.
Is it necessary to have a banking license? Well that would depend in which part of the world you operate in. Certain countries will happily let you have a VISA/Mastercard association without having a banking license, and others won't.
Typically to have VISA/Mastercard attachment, you would need to have CTL software and systems that are in compliance and certified by the VISA/Mastercard (or other card acquirer audit). This is a process that can take anywhere from a 12-18 months.
On a recent consultancy assignment that I had the privilege to work on, the entire project scope was billed at US$ 4.2 Million for a two redundant locations and was VISA and Mastercard certified. The exercise took about 10 months to go live (considering they were a bank and had prior experience).
The necessary steps as always recommended is to talk to VISA and Mastercard themselves, your Central Bank in your country (specifically Payment Systems department) and get to talk to a few CTL OEMs to get to know the software, the process, etc, i.e. the solution set.