Amazon launched a new program that impacts how sellers can receive proceeds from their Amazon sales. Many merchants choose to have disbursements made directly into their bank accounts – those sellers won’t be impacted by the new policy. But some merchants use a third-party service, which Amazon calls Payment Service Providers (PSP).
Some PSPs market themselves to merchants who sell globally as a way to save money on currency conversion – repatriating funds into your home country can be expensive – and other services to facilitate cross-border trade. (Note that Amazon Currency Converter changed its fee structure about 6 months ago.)
On Monday, Amazon announced that sellers who use a third-party PSP will be limited to those participating in its new program.
Amazon told EcommerceBytes the program is designed to protect sellers from bad actors. “Amazon is always innovating to protect our buying and selling experience, and we are implementing new measures for Payment Service Providers that make it even harder for bad actors to hide. The Payment Service Provider Program will enhance our ability to detect, prevent, and take actions against bad actors so we can continue to protect customers and sellers from fraud and abuse.”
As a reminder, Amazon processes payments on behalf of sellers – the new program only impacts how sellers access their funds.
A majority of merchants use bank accounts, and of those who do use PSPs to receive their payouts, Amazon expects over 90% of them already use a PSP enrolled in its new program – those include LianLian Pay, Payoneer, PingPong, and WorldFirst.
Key information for sellers about the new program:
- If you do not use a PSP, but instead are using a bank account directly issued to you by a bank, no action is required.
- Beginning on March 1, 2021, sellers adding a new bank account from a PSP must use a PSP that is participating in the Program.
- Sellers using a PSP not enrolled in the program have until May 31, 2021 to become compliant.
Amazon said it requires payment service providers to have appropriate risk and compliance controls in place and exchange information with Amazon to reduce the potential for fraud and abuse – and it said it only uses information provided by PSPs to detect, prevent, and take actions against bad actors.
You can find the announcement on Amazon Seller Central.
Edited 2/1/2021 for clarification.
