Fighting Fraud in Financial Services: Verifi, Inc.

“Risk is no longer just about chargebacks and fraud from our customers’ perspectives – it is also about the risk of a refund and the risk of a decline on a credit card.” - Matthew Katz, CEO & Founder Verifi, Inc. 

Credit card chargeback fraud is a persistent problem for merchants, and it can be hard to detect. If the fraud goes unchecked, the consequences can be severe as it becomes easier for fraudsters to use stolen credentials to order merchandise and services online. Chargebacks are inevitable and potentially damaging, especially for high-risk businesses. We are thrilled to present Verifi, Inc., an award-winning provider of end-to-end payment protection and management solutions. 

Established in 2005, Verifi processes more than $10 billion in transactions annually and currently serves over 25,000 accounts globally. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. 

Verifi provides industry-leading fraud prevention solutions, specializing in helping merchants protect their card payments through the entire payment life-cycle. Their products and services help identify and mitigate fraud as well as resolve and even eliminate chargebacks. By facilitating a safe environment for card payment processing, protecting merchant and consumer, instances of fraudulent transactions can be greatly reduced.

Verifi engages with credit card issuing banks and merchants to help protect payments and, in turn, ensure an improved experience for the consumer. Their collaborative solutions help merchants prevent fraudulent and unwarranted chargebacks, which is a costly concern for merchants and issuers alike. Verifi’s Cardholder Dispute Resolution Network (CDRN), featuring a patented “closed loop” process, enables financial organizations and merchants to act in near real-time at the initiation of a transaction dispute to expedite refunds, reduce fraud, and even help stop chargebacks from ever being filed. 

The company works within most retail-related industries, with omni-channel and e-commerce merchants, helping to maximize payment yield across the entire transaction life-cycle. 

Interview Excerpt: Matthew Katz, CEO & Founder Verifi, Inc. 

Why was the company set up? How did you select the vertical and decide to be a part of the global platform?

I started the company with the intention of helping payments evolve. We began by creating new technologies, an analytics-based approach that adds up to 2,000 additional data points beyond the typical customer information, which provides merchants with a better understanding of what is happening in their business. With that we could create robust and refined fraud prevention solutions. 

Even though we originally focused on the concept of risk, we branched into a number of directions. While continually investing in the business, we have evolved by redefining risk. Risk is no longer just about chargebacks and fraud from our customers’ perspectives – it’s also about the risk of a refund and the risk of a decline on a credit card. Ultimately, it comes down to augmenting the lifetime value of a merchant and improving customer relations. 

We have found that merchants in global markets have been largely underserved when it comes to fraud and chargeback prevention. The expansion of our end-to-end fraud and chargeback solutions into global markets is a natural extension of our drive to innovate and improve the payments space. 

What were the grounds on which you have expanded your company and its offerings over the years?

In the last several years we have realized that the technologies that we built for recurring subscription merchants are more applicable to high velocity merchants who have no set schedule. Due to their brands and the nature of the goods or services being sold, their customers have a high propensity to make repeat purchases. We have expanded outside of just the recurring subscription model into a high-frequency business model as well. 

Our relationship managers constantly work with our customers to get their feedback on how we can improve upon the user experience and the usability of our products. We are constantly incorporating that into our product enhancements, which is how we try to stay close with our customers – for us, that is the primary focus. 

What are the biggest assets to your organization? What would they be and why?

Borne from our core values, it’s Verifi’s amazing employees that constitute our greatest asset. Their dedication and ingenuity are the driving force in our pursuit to create innovative products and provide our clients with unmatched customer service. Feedback from our clients often reinforces that their loyalty is entirely due to the outstanding service they receive. 

Verifi’s core values are summed up simply: unique client experience strategy, pride in our work, integrity, collaborative teams, fulfilling environment. Every executive, team, and individual adopts these values as their key perspective when applying efforts to every project and in every aspect of developing client relationships. Operating at this foundational level of understanding helps us keep focus on our larger goals. 

What do you feel are the reasons behind your consistence in growth as an organization?

A key factor to our growth has come from word of mouth from our clients. By direct client feedback, as well as communications from our resellers and referrals, we see time and again an abiding appreciation for our products, that they are truly effective in helping to mitigate fraud and protect our clients’ revenue. 

To a large degree, our growth as an organization can be traced directly to our most valued resource, the people of Verifi. We constantly look for a specific set of characteristics, for dynamic, passionate, talented people who are as eager to work collaboratively as they are to bring out that unconventional and disruptive way of thinking that sets up the kind of lasting change in the industry that we are seeking. Fostering an environment that encourages and rewards passionate ideas is at the very heart of Verifi, and its expression shows in all levels of our work force. 

Two-way communication is most effective, and employees need to feel they have an outlet for sharing their observations and ideas. How does this idea come to life at Verifi?

The energy of Verifi’s office culture reflects what having an open door policy is all about. We reinforce in all of our employees that every point of view can have value. We promote and reward the sharing of innovative ideas. In fact, our ever-growing product team fosters innovation and ideation both within their group and throughout the organization. Our offices and conference rooms are equipped with white boards for people to sketch out ideas and invite creative thinking. The executive team always makes themselves available for questions and feedback, and many of our best ideas have come from employees that work directly with our services, and also from our company surveys and the action items derived from internal employee feedback. 

The bottom line is, it takes more than a few sharp minds with the will and adventurous spirit needed to promote innovation and lasting change. There is a strong sense of mission at Verifi, and we take great pride in that. 

Meet the Founder 

Matthew Katz started Verifi after developing the first customized solution that systematically identifies multiple types of payment risk. In his current role as CEO, Mr. Katz continues to drive Verifi’s vision as the company further diversifies its product offerings, extending into many verticals and markets within the payment industry. He has a well-established career as a successful entrepreneur, having founded and partnered several other businesses and consulting firms prior to Verifi. The CEO is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in Economics.