One of the things that Arash is most proud of is that he was accused (by Executive Management of a top-5 global processor) of “being too business-friendly”! At the time, Arash was Head of Credit Risk for this top-5 global processor. A seasoned sales agent had brought forth a massive merchant opportunity in the travel space. After the processor’s decision engine and credit policy team had declined the account, the sales agent escalated the account to Arash.

Over the next several weeks, he held multiple meetings with different stakeholders on the merchant side; from the CEO and CFO to Marketing and IT. By diligently and accurately documenting the merchant’s unique business model and risk profile, a formal exception request was submitted to the sponsor bank who in-turn understood the opportunity and mitigating factors that had been proposed. The bank agreed to the exception. The account now had to clear the Credit Committee, which comprised of senior management and several C-suite members. During the meeting, senior management (VPs and SVPs) were arguing against approval but were over-ridden by the C-suite members!

This is actually very common in larger organizations; the top layer of the organization has no idea what goes on day-to-day at the decision-making level of the Credit Risk Department and the middle-management level is not aligned with the top layer. They typically never talk to one-another and operate in silos that march in different directions.

At Payzli, we have created a framework where EVERY declined account must be sent to a group comprised of various department Heads for concurrence, and declined accounts over a certain volume threshold must obtain CEO concurrence. We do this to ensure our underwriting team stays closely aligned with our aggressive risk appetite and partner-centric philosophy. We believe that there is such a thing as diligent flexibility and use this approach to bend over backwards when it makes sense. We believe that you can be creative and compliant at the same time. Our team of Credit and Risk experts are here not just to mitigate risk…we are here to mitigate and monetize risk. We strive to strike a healthy balance between risk and revenue on every deal so no viable opportunity is lost.