ISO-агент
Independent Sales Organization
An ISO agent (Independent Sales Organization) is an independent company that sells acquiring and payment services on behalf of a bank acquirer and brings merchants to it.
What is ISO-агент (Independent Sales Organization)?
## What an ISO agent is
An ISO agent is an organization that is not a bank and has no membership of its own in a payment network. Under a contract with a sponsor bank (acquirer), it sells that bank's card payment acceptance services. The arrangement is governed by Visa and Mastercard rules, which set out the requirements for ISOs and the bank's liability for its agents.
## How it works
The ISO finds a business, signs an application with it, collects documents and passes them to the sponsor bank for underwriting. The bank approves or rejects the merchant, opens a merchant account and sets the rates. The ISO earns a commission from the bank or from the merchant, and often a share of turnover, depending on the contract.
## Where it is found
ISOs most often work in segments that banks are reluctant to serve directly: high-risk business, small businesses, online commerce, gambling and crypto-adjacent areas. There the ISO helps onboard clients faster, but underwriting remains the bank's responsibility.
## What it affects
The quality of an ISO determines onboarding speed, the merchant's rates and the likelihood of later account blocks. Poorly vetted merchants raise the chargeback ratio and the risk of the bank being placed in payment network monitoring, after which the bank may impose reserves or terminate the contract.
## Common mistakes
Typical mistakes include working with an ISO without checking its licenses and its contract with the sponsor bank, unclear division of responsibility for KYB and data storage, non-transparent hidden fees, and attempts to get around underwriting with fictitious business descriptions (the descriptor and MCC do not match the actual activity).
FAQ
Is an ISO agent the same thing as an acquirer?
No. An acquirer is a bank that holds membership in a payment network and bears financial responsibility to it. An ISO acts on the acquirer's behalf and does not settle transactions with the payment network itself.
Can an ISO approve merchants on its own?
The final decision is made by the sponsor bank after underwriting. The ISO can pre-screen clients and collect documents, but onboarding is impossible without the bank's approval.
How is an ISO different from a payment aggregator?
An ISO sells the bank's services and usually works under a bank merchant model. A payment facilitator onboards sub-merchants under its own account and takes on some of the operational functions itself.