The banks LOVE adult high risk. The discount rates, the volume, the transaction fees are very seductive. If the banks could wholly control their own destinies, they’d all be processing adult online transactions—with joy and abandon.
The big BUT is that they fear retribution from the card schemes (Visa & Mastercard). Either of them can and do impose enormous penalties on the banks when they exceed the card schemes’ chargeback thressholds. Worse, they can ban the banks from issuing cards with their logos. This would be catastrophic for any bank.
Parenthetically, I was contacted by a bank recently, requesting that I remove a hentai scene that referenced 'pointy ears' (think Mr. Spock) in the meta data. Pointy ears, they said, was a feature of a 'hybrid human'. Hybrid humans having sex with humans, they said, was bestiality. And Visa would not process payments for anything promoting bestiality. This is just one illustration of how paranoid they are.
So that’s the rub on the processing side, but there are many, many banks that will board adult online merchants, in both the US and the EU. As well, there are numerous IPSPs (Internet Payment Service Providers) for adult merchants, ideal for companies just starting out, or companies not interested in sacrificing time and energy managing a private merchant account.
On the settlement side, that’s a new issue.
Banks are less and less keen to open business checking accounts for adult online merchants. They’re nervous about these transactions settling to one of their accounts.
This is largely the result of paranoia about new banking regulations in the wake of the mortgage-backed securities debacle. They are now (rightfully) under a great deal of scrutiny from regulators which translates to onerous judgement calls from banks.
The big BUT is that they fear retribution from the card schemes (Visa & Mastercard). Either of them can and do impose enormous penalties on the banks when they exceed the card schemes’ chargeback thressholds. Worse, they can ban the banks from issuing cards with their logos. This would be catastrophic for any bank.
Parenthetically, I was contacted by a bank recently, requesting that I remove a hentai scene that referenced 'pointy ears' (think Mr. Spock) in the meta data. Pointy ears, they said, was a feature of a 'hybrid human'. Hybrid humans having sex with humans, they said, was bestiality. And Visa would not process payments for anything promoting bestiality. This is just one illustration of how paranoid they are.
So that’s the rub on the processing side, but there are many, many banks that will board adult online merchants, in both the US and the EU. As well, there are numerous IPSPs (Internet Payment Service Providers) for adult merchants, ideal for companies just starting out, or companies not interested in sacrificing time and energy managing a private merchant account.
On the settlement side, that’s a new issue.
Banks are less and less keen to open business checking accounts for adult online merchants. They’re nervous about these transactions settling to one of their accounts.
This is largely the result of paranoia about new banking regulations in the wake of the mortgage-backed securities debacle. They are now (rightfully) under a great deal of scrutiny from regulators which translates to onerous judgement calls from banks.