What Do Risk and Compliance Teams Really Think About PFs?

With the number of payment facilitators set to grow meaningfully over the next few years, each acquirer will make a decision—embrace or abstain. Choosing which side of the fence depends on whether an acquirer primarily sees PFs as sources of growth or risk. When G2's Dan Frechtling hears from compliance and risk leaders, this is not a spontaneous choice. It’s a conditional, pragmatic, step-by-step journey. Even the believers have adopted a trust-but-verify stance.

The compliance and risk teams who embrace PFs envision a new scalable sales channel that fuels growth. They focus on a few PFs with which to succeed. Said one compliance head, "We choose a small number opportunistically because they take so long to get over the board." Those teams that avoid PFs take a shorter term view of ROI, deeming PFs too hard to onboard in relation to potential fee revenue. Some even have a visceral fear over what could go wrong. "We see them as a risk we don’t want to touch, so we avoid them like the plague," said one manager.