As a Payment Facilitator and a PCI Level 1 Compliant Service Provider we take payment setup seriously, with a process designed to get our races paid accurately and on-time while preventing fraudulent events.
RunSignUp is only one of a couple of hundred Payment Facilitators in the country. We have taken steps as a company to meet stringent security, banking, VISA and Mastercard processing rules to become an authorized intermediary (Payment Facilitator) between credit card holders and races. Having this status in the banking industry allows us to create and authorize sub-merchants (races & charities) and directs the payment of funds from the credit card holder to the sub-merchants who have set up payment accounts with RunSignUp.
As part of the banking industry Payment Facilitators are subject to a number of complex rules that come from government regulations like the Electronic Fund TransferAct, the Bank Secrecy Act, and the USA Patriot Act and from additional rules imposed by the credit card companies. These rules are intended to prevent the illegal transfer of funds, money laundering and the funding of terrorist organizations. These rules require RunSignUp and other Payment Facilitators to have a process for obtaining and verifying information about the entities we do business with. These requirements are referred to as Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements and they determine some of the data that we ask you for when you set up a new payment account with RunSignUp. These are the same kind of KYC questions you would answer if you set up a merchant account with a company like PayPal, Square or Stripe.
The registration company that you used to use may not be running their business in accordance with all of the banking industry rules that we are subject to. The good news is that you should be comfortable with the fact that we have taken the steps and invested the resources in making sure we know who we are doing business with
and that we have security measures in place to protect our business and your races from illegal money transfers and fraud.
For more information, see here.