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1. Introduction

1.1 ISO Introduction

This section of the documentation contains a brief introduction on the ISO partner model and the ISO Onboarding API. It includes a high level overview of ISO partner models and what is required to onboard a merchant via the ISO API.

1.2 Being an ISO with Rapyd

An ISO is an Independent Sales Organization, and their role in payments processing is to act as a third party to the acquirer, handling merchant accounts for merchants. Merchants managed by ISOs each have their own merchant account

It should not be confused with a Payment Facilitator (PF), which is another kind of partner that also manages merchant payment processing. However, PFs hold a single merchant account which acts as an "umbrella" account for all of their merchants.

1.3 Plan the Integration

Make sure that you have the following information before you begin to do any development:

  • The purpose of the API. Make sure that you understand what the API is for, and how it will be used. The ISO API is Rapyd's onboarding API for ISO partners. It allows you to automatically onboard your merchants with Rapyd as part of your own onboarding process, removing the need for a manual upload. If you are a Payment Facilitator (PF) partner, there is another API for you - the Card Network Lookup Service.

  • The target audience. Who will be using your interface to the API? This may have implications for the user interface as well as the type of information that is being exchanged.

  • The purpose of the integration. What does the end user want from the API?

ISO accepts requests in JSON. You can find out more about writing requests in the next chapters.

Important Note

If the data is incorrect (spelling errors etc.) you can not modify it after it has been posted.

1.4 The integration flow after data has been posted

What happens after you've successfully created a merchant via POST request?

These actions need to occur in the meantime before the merchant can be boarded to production.

  • The merchant goes into a validation state. Steps such as VMSS/Match and PEP Screening need to be taken. This takes on average two or three hours.
  • After validation is complete, the application goes to the queue of Rapyd's boarding team.
  • Application review starts. Time frame on completion differs between Service Level Agreements (SLA).