Merchant Accounts

A merchant account or commercial account in denomination is the same and is a type of banking account that allows the companies to accept payments through debit or credit cards, also serves as an agreement between the retailers and a commercial bank and payment processor for the solution of credit card and/or transactions with debit cards.

The services to process a Merchant Account are provided by the bank or third parties mercantile account processors. These services include the authorization of credit cards, the establishment of funds through issuing card associations (MasterCard, Visa, etc.), deposit of funds in checking accounts, mercantile invoicing, and activity reports of the account.

Nowadays most of the transactions with credit card are sent electronically to the commercial banks for authorization processing, capture and deposit. There are several methods for the presentation of a credit card for a sale in "the system". In all circumstances, the entire magnetic stripe is read by sliding through a credit card terminal/reader, a chip that is read, or the information of credit card is manually introduced in a credit card terminal, computer or Web page.

Currently we deal with several processors of mercantile accounts. The one we recommend you will depend on your particular model of business.

Most of the merchant account service suppliers do not accept certain type of businesses of high risk, such as:

The sale of child pornography, brutality, materials for pornography use, incest, nothing "improper".
The sale of controlled substances, such as valium, codeine, marijuana, nothing of "addictive substances".
Commerce with gambling in the US market.
Commerce with trips, which are difficult for approval, due to the time delivery of the offered services hereto.
Tobacco, perfumes, alcohol are not difficult to approve due to the nature of the products, the import of these products are allowed either in many countries.
Forex
Firearms and ammunitions.

The electronic commerce is considered in general the sales aspect of the electronic commerce. It also consists of the interchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment of the commercial transactions.

The steps to create a business an electronic commerce in Internet, offshore and duty free are:

To incorporate a Corporation offshore.
Opening of an offshore bank account for the online deposits
To have a Web site for your corporation and to start offering your products and/or services.
To request a mercantile account for electronic commerce through us.

The requirements to open a mercantile account are:

Certificate of Good Standing of the Corporation issued by the Public Registry of Panama, with minimum validity of three (3) months.
Certification of the Company declaring the current Directors of the Corporation.
Certification of the Company declaring the current Shareholders of the Corporation.
Certification of the Company declaring the current physical address of the Corporation.
Articles of Incorporation of the Corporation.
Copy of the passports of directors, officers, shareholders and other persons that sign and are involved with the opening of the mercantile account.
Original bill of utilities (telephone, water, cable TV, etc.), statements of account or credit card statements of account from directors, officers, shareholders and other persons that sign and are involved with the opening of the mercantile account, with minimum validity of three (3) months.
Letter of reference signed by a Lawyer, Bank´s Manager or Authorized Public Accountant, declaring the names and domicile address of each one of the directors, officers, shareholders and other persons that sign and are involved with the opening of the mercantile account.
Compliance Certification from PCI (AIS/SDP).
Copy of the Commercial License of the Corporation. (if applies)
Letter of banking reference of the bank account where the deposits are made.
Letter of financial reference of the company.
Letter of professional reference from any client.
Letter of the company declaring the following: summary of the commercial activities, description of products and/or services that are sold online, jurisdictions of the companies with which you usually do businesses, year in which the Corporation was constituted, volume of previous or projected business (annual income, sales, prorate, etc.), estimated percentage of reversed charges, website URL that are used to sell your products or services, jurisdiction where the website URL is hosted.

* Each document shall be apostilled or authenticated at the Consulate of Panama in your country of origin.

** The requirements may vary according to the Bank or the intermediaries.

*** All requests for mercantile account is subject to previous verification.