How PayNovus Built a Connected Chargeback Operation Across Its Merchant Portfolio
Prevention, compliance monitoring and case management, brought together on one platform, with zero internal engineering hours from PayNovus.
The problem: a chargeback operation running in pieces
PayNovus is a Bulgaria-based direct acquirer for Visa and Mastercard, managing a diverse merchant portfolio that includes sectors with complex chargeback and compliance requirements.
Like most acquirers, PayNovus didn’t lack tools. It lacked a connected operating model. Dispute handling ran through a ticketing system and separate workflows: case intake, merchant notifications, evidence collection and representment each needed repeated manual intervention. The process worked, but every additional dispute created more administration, and the model would not scale with the portfolio.
Compliance monitoring had a different constraint. PayNovus previously relied on manual reports to identify merchants approaching Visa and Mastercard monitoring thresholds, which exposed the process to potential oversight and delayed detection.
The challenge wasn’t to add more tools. It was to connect prevention, compliance and case management without creating another layer of integrations for PayNovus’s own engineering team to build and maintain.
Our chargeback operation used to run across separate tools, reports and workflows: alerts in one place, compliance in a monthly report, case handling in a ticketing system. ChargebackStop connected all of it.
The solution: one data foundation across the chargeback lifecycle
ChargebackStop worked with PayNovus and its third-party providers to identify the required data sources and build the integrations. Transaction, dispute and portfolio data are normalised on one platform and shared across prevention, compliance monitoring and case management, so each capability improves the others rather than operating in isolation.
ChargebackStop managed the integration work directly. PayNovus required zero hours of internal engineering to stand up the connected solution.
Prevent: stopping disputes before they become chargebacks
Through ChargebackStop’s relationships with Ethoca and Verifi, PayNovus now offers eligible merchants a broader set of pre-dispute services within its own merchant proposition: RDR, alerts, deflection and compelling-evidence capabilities. ChargebackStop manages the underlying connections and orchestration, and eligible merchants activate services through a streamlined experience.
A Verifi Order Insight lookup answered with Compelling Evidence 3.0: prior undisputed transactions on the same card, matched on device, IP address and account, deflect the dispute before it becomes a chargeback.
Across ChargebackStop’s wider merchant base, prevention services can prevent up to 98% of eligible disputes from progressing into chargebacks for merchants enrolled in prevention. For PayNovus, the value of prevention is broader than a single percentage. It strengthens the acquiring relationship, creates a commercial opportunity and gives risk teams an earlier point of intervention when a merchant’s dispute indicators begin to rise.
Compliance: staying ahead of scheme changes and portfolio risk
ChargebackStop’s compliance module monitors the relevant Visa and Mastercard merchant and acquirer compliance programmes using data already on the platform, with monitoring logic updated as scheme thresholds, programmes and mandates evolve.
For PayNovus, this creates a centralised view of compliance risk across the portfolio and reduces the need to translate scheme changes into separate manual monitoring processes. As requirements such as Visa’s VAMP and Mastercard’s ECM and HECM evolve, the team can see the relevant metrics in one place and move from identifying an emerging issue to investigating it, engaging the merchant and taking action.
Each scheme rule is evaluated per merchant against its breach threshold. Here a merchant’s refund-or-chargeback rate of 5.77% crosses the 5% threshold and the rule triggers.
A triggered rule opens an investigation case with the assessed value, the threshold and the backing evaluation run, and starts the scheme’s 72-hour investigation clock.
ChargebackStop gives us a clearer view of compliance risk across the portfolio. As Visa and Mastercard requirements change, having the relevant monitoring in one place helps us stay on top of scheme updates and move quickly from identifying a risk to acting on it.
Manage: one workspace instead of fragmented administration
Case intake and merchant notifications are automated. Merchant communication, evidence collection and representment are managed on the same platform, and merchants have a dedicated interface for handling their own disputes. The chargebacks team spends less time coordinating across tools and more time on the cases that need judgment, investigation or specialist input.
When a merchant submits a response, the case moves to acquirer review automatically. One action sends it to the issuer or returns it to the merchant, and each step is recorded on the timeline.
Previously, every dispute required repeated manual intervention from our team. Now case intake and merchant notifications are automated, while evidence and representment are managed through one connected workflow.
The results
PayNovus has moved from manual processes, monthly risk snapshots and separate pre-dispute services to one connected operating model: preventing more disputes before they escalate, identifying compliance risk sooner, and managing the cases that remain through a consistent workflow.
ChargebackStop has enabled us to broaden our merchant offering with a more connected approach to prevention and dispute management, without requiring integration work from our internal engineering team.
Looking ahead
The expanded partnership gives PayNovus a foundation that develops as its portfolio grows and as Visa and Mastercard scheme requirements evolve. PayNovus and ChargebackStop will continue extending the prevention, compliance and case management capabilities available through the platform.
Managing chargebacks across separate tools, providers and reports? Book a portfolio review to see what a connected operation looks like across your merchant portfolio, or learn more about partnering with ChargebackStop.
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