Dispute Resolution

Objective

This document specifies the process for handling disputes on the Monnify Payment Gateway as well as the TATs attached to the process.

Parties

The possible parties in a transaction are as follows:

• Payer: The individual or organisation who initiated a payment to a merchant on Monnify.
• Merchant: The organisation registered on Monnify for the purpose of receiving payments
• Monnify: The payment gateway that processes the payments by the payer to the merchant.

Dispute Resolution Process

The scenarios that can lead to disputes are highlighted below each with the process for handling the disputes duly specified.

• Erroneous debits on a transfer attempt.
• Erroneous transfer due to error by the Payer.
• Successful transfer but not reflecting on the merchant’s application.

Regardless of the scenario, the process for responding to disputes is as follows.

• Payer lodges complaint with his bank.
• Payer’s bank logs the dispute against our partner bank who was involved in processing that specific transaction.
• The partner bank logs the dispute on Monnify and the merchant is automatically notified of the dispute.
• The merchant can either accept the dispute or reject the dispute and provide the following proof.
  • Evidence of provision of service to the customer.
  • Evidence of a successful reversal with regards to the disputed transaction.
• Where the merchant accepts the dispute, funds will be reversed from the merchant’s account to the sender’s account if funds are available or the disputed amount may be deducted from the next settlement.
• Where the merchant provided proof to reject the dispute, the sending institution will be notified with the proof and the dispute should be considered invalid.
• For a dispute where proof has been provided, the Payer’s bank is expected to notify the Payer of the reason the dispute was rejected.
• If the Payer logs the dispute again for the same transaction, then the case may be referred to arbitration.

Fraudulent Transaction Resolution Process

Fraudsters may get unlawful access to customer’s cards or accounts and may then process payments using these channels to merchants. The process for handling fraudulently processed transactions is as follows:.

• Defrauded customer lodges complaint with his bank.
• Defrauded customer’s bank logs the dispute against our partner bank/card processor who was involved in processing that specific transaction.
• The partner bank reports the fraudulent transaction to Monnify.
• Monnify immediately notifies the merchant of the fraudulent transaction.
• The merchant is expected to cooperate fully by taking the following actions:
  • The merchant must provide full KYC information of the customer who is the beneficiary of the fraudulent transaction including:
    1. BVN
    2. Full Name
    3. Email
    4. Phone Number
    5. Address
    6. Official ID
    7. Any other KYC information available
• If a part or whole of the funds for the fraudulent transaction are still available, then the funds should be restricted and the customer should be prevented access to such funds.
• If the funds have been sent to another account or accounts, the merchant must provide full details of the destination account(s) as well as the amounts sent and the dates.
• If value has been given for the funds, the merchant must provide full details of the beneficiary of the value which could be a phone number, meter number etc as well as proof of rendering value.
• The merchant will be required to refund funds that were restricted successfully to Monnify for onward processing to the defrauded customer.

Turn Around Times (TAT)

The Turn Around Times for disputes on interbank transfers are as defined by the CBN and Transfer Processor. However, the TAT for disputes logged on Monnify are captured in the table below

Merchant Liability

Failure of the merchant to cooperate fully with the processes above and keep to the TATs specified may lead to the merchant being liable for the fraudulent or disputed transaction. Monnify may have to recover the disputed amount from the Merchant either by deducting the amount from it’s next settlement or via other means.