split payment
A split payment is a single payment that the regulated party divides at the moment it is processed, so that each portion is credited to a different recipient: for example, the seller's share and the platform's fee. The platform never holds its customer's money; only its own share reaches it.
Splits are how a software platform or marketplace earns from a payment without touching it. The buyer pays once. The regulated acquiring partner divides the amount as it lands: the customer's or seller's share to their balance, the platform's fee to the platform's balance, and from there each is paid out to its own bank account. Nothing passes through an account the platform controls, which is the point: the FCA's guidance says a business is likely to need authorisation if funds pass through an account it controls on the way to the payee, and a split avoids exactly that.
Why it matters: a split lets the platform set and keep its own fee, price different groups of customers differently, and change the fee without renegotiating with anyone. It is the mechanism underneath a regulated-partner model and the reason that model is not a referral deal.
What to watch: refunds and chargebacks on a split payment have to be split too, and the rules need deciding before launch. Who funds a refund of a payment whose fee has already been paid out? Does the platform's share come back? Is a dispute charged to the seller, the platform or both? Those answers belong in the seller terms and in the ledger.
Sources
- FCA, Commercial agent exclusion (CAE): acting for both payer and payee, 17 February 2023