Merchant Acquiring & Payment Operations
Authorization, clearing, settlement, merchant accounts, acquiring relationships, payment infrastructure, and the operational realities behind accepting payments.
← PAYMENTS, UNPACKED.Dave
Chief Operating Officer, Mentom Payments
AUTHOR / OPERATOR
Dave
Wilson.
Chief Operating Officer, Mentom PaymentsPayments can look simple from the checkout screen. The work behind that transaction rarely is.
OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
How payments actually work behind the scenes.
Dave leads the systems and operating infrastructure connecting payment technology, merchant onboarding, underwriting, risk, compliance, support, automation, APIs, data, and partner operations.
With more than 15 years of experience building and scaling ISO and payment-facilitation programs, his perspective comes from where the commercial and operational sides of merchant acquiring meet.
The goal is not to make complicated subjects sound simple when they are not. It is to explain them clearly enough that merchants, agents, and other payments professionals understand what is actually happening and why.
AREAS DAVE WRITES ABOUT
Rules, risk, systems,
and the real-world operation.
Risk, Fraud & Disputes
VAMP, chargebacks, fraud monitoring, friendly fraud, transaction laundering, merchant monitoring, reserves, and risk mitigation.
Merchant Underwriting
Business-model risk, MCCs, processing history, reserves, MATCH, application readiness, and the factors acquiring teams evaluate.
Payments Technology
APIs, integrated payments, gateways, automation, tokenization, recurring payments, data, and the systems connecting merchants to the acquiring ecosystem.
Compliance & Payment Security
PCI DSS, card-brand requirements, stored credentials, payment security, and the difference between formal requirements and acquiring policy.
ISO & Agent Operations
Partner economics, residuals, portfolio growth, merchant attrition, risk responsibilities, and what makes an acquiring relationship work.
PAYMENTS, UNPACKED.
Articles by Dave
Primary-source research with the operating context that program guides rarely provide.
