Merchant payment collection

Understand the merchant user type and how they might use Swan

To use the Merchant Payment Collection feature, you need to complete a risk review first. To get started, contact your dedicated Technical Account Manager, or send an email to [email protected].
Merchant profile
A merchant profile is a collection of business, risk, and support information that fulfils two primary requirements: (1) to approve the account holder as a merchant, and (2) to operate Swan’s Merchant Payment Collection services.
The merchant profile contains information such as business details, a description of the business activity, a link to the merchant’s website, projected volumes, a support phone number, an optional logo to display online and on mandate PDFs, and more.
You can request a profile update with the API mutation requestMerchantProfileUpdate, and merchants can request an update through your web banking interface. You can request an update to the merchant's name, website, product type, expected monthly payment volume, expected average basket, and logo.
A merchant profile is required of all Swan account holders wanting to collect third-party funds using the Swan Merchant Payment Collection feature. If you want to collect third-party funds, you must have at least one merchant profile.
The merchant profile is created with the status PendingReview, and the profile is visible right away on your Dashboard.
→ Learn how to add and update a merchant profile, and initiate payments.​
Risk and merchant profiles
All merchant profiles are reviewed by Swan. We might contact you for more information before accepting or rejecting the new merchant profile.
Swan changes the status for accepted merchant profiles from PendingReview to Enabled.
Swan changes the status of unaccepted profiles to Rejected. The decision is final and cannot be challenged.
Swan might suspend or cancel a merchant profile.
There are various situations that can lead to the suspension or cancellation of a merchant profile, the most notable being risk-related, such as fraud.
Merchant profiles with the status Suspended cannot be used.
The status Canceled, like the status Rejected, is final.
Merchant payment methods
Merchant payment methods are the payment methods a merchant uses to accept payment from their clients. Merchant payment methods are connected to a merchant profile. A single merchant profile can have multiple payment methods, and multiple payment methods can be requested at the same time.
To use the Swan Merchant Payment Collection feature, there must be at least one merchant profile and at least one merchant payment method, both with the status Enabled.
Available payment methods
Swan offers the following payment methods for Merchant Payment Collection:
​Internal Direct Debit (B2B and Standard)
​SEPA Direct Debit (B2B and Core)
​French checks (debtor's bank must be located in France; API only)
Versions and statuses
Swan creates a new version of your payment method each time a change is requested. Only one version of a payment method can have the status Enabled.
Similarly, only one version of a payment method can have the status PendingReview. However, the statuses Disabled, Canceled, and Rejected can be assigned to unlimited versions of each payment method.
You do not need to change the status of the Enabled or PendingReview payment method before running a request with the API as Swan handles this automatically.
Risk and payment methods
All payment methods are reviewed by Swan. We might contact you for more information before accepting or rejecting the payment method.
Swan might change a payment method status to Suspended if an API request is made that conflicts with status and versioning rules.
After completing a review of an existing payment method, Swan can reinstate the payment method by changing the status back to to Enabled.
Swan changes the status from PendingReview or Suspended to Rejected when the payment method is rejected or no longer acceptable.
Rolling reserve
Rolling reserve is a policy Swan applies to merchant transactions to protect the merchant and Swan against various risk factors, primarily insufficient funds. The reserved amount acts as a safety net to cover potential loss for both Swan and the merchant .
Rolling reserve is expressed as a percentage over a period of time (example: 10% of the payment amount over 30 business days), which is applied to most funds collected through the Swan Merchant Payment Collection feature.
For the indicated period of time, the amount is not part of the merchant's available account balance, after which the funds are released to the merchant.
Rolling reserve is held in a non-interest bearing reserve for transparency between Swan and merchants, therefore reducing the risk of a conflict of interest between the two parties.
Payment method
Rolling reserve
Default amount
Standard Internal Direct Debit
​✅
 Yes
Determined by a merchant profile risk assessment
B2B Internal Direct Debit
❌ No
n/a
Core SEPA Direct Debit
​✅
 Yes
15% over 15 business days
B2B SEPA Direct Debit
​✅
 Yes
100% over 3 business days
French checks
​✅
 Yes
100% over 10 interbank business days

Payment method	Rolling reserve	Default amount
Standard Internal Direct Debit	✅ Yes	Determined by a merchant profile risk assessment
B2B Internal Direct Debit	❌ No	n/a
Core SEPA Direct Debit	✅ Yes	15% over 15 business days
B2B SEPA Direct Debit	✅ Yes	100% over 3 business days
French checks	✅ Yes	100% over 10 interbank business days

Rolling Reserve

Internal Direct Debit for merchants

Last modified 2mo ago