NMI Buys Agreement Express for Merchant Onboarding

Payments platform NMI has acquired the payment solutions of onboarding software provider Agreement Express.

According to a Tuesday (Dec. 6) news release, the purchase includes the onboarding, underwriting and risk monitoring capabilities of Agreement Express.

“With the addition of Agreement Express’s payments solutions, NMI has expanded its full commerce enablement offering to include world-class underwriting and risk monitoring capabilities that substantially enhance its merchant sign-up offering,” the company said.

NMI says the deal will expand its capabilities by giving ISV, ISO and FinTechs services such as customizable risk scoring, automated data collection, compliance monitoring, ongoing Know Your Customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML) and fraud screenings.

This will give channel partners an easier time streamlining these processes and growing their merchant portfolios, NMI said.

Agreement Express CEO Dave O’Brien said his company and NMI were a natural fit, and that the agreement will provide added value to clients.

“As the payments landscape continues to evolve, companies are looking for new ways to scale with modular solutions and bringing together our solutions provides even more freedom of choice,” he said.

PYMNTS spoke with O’Brien last year about the benefits of automated underwriting.

“Automated underwriting is designed to make you, as an organization, smarter and better. It’s not just about approvals or declines,” he said.

Not only is underwriting time shaved from days to minutes, an improved underwriting experience helps service providers increase their merchant acquisitions. That’s because those providers can assess merchant risk and underwrite merchant applications automatically and in a matter of minutes, O’Brien told PYMNTS.

He said underwriters generally are able to see their application volumes swell tenfold, with a 70% decline in abandonment rates.

NMI’s acquisition of the Agreement Express payments services follows the company’s purchase in January of customer relationship management (CRM) and comprehensive merchant management platform IRIS CRM.

As PYMNTS wrote at the time, the deal expands NMI’s solution outside of gateway services and adds merchant prospecting, management and onboarding.