ARN (Acquirer Reference Number) access is crucial to streamlining the chargeback management process for financial institutions and Fintech organizations. Financial institutions can engage in a more efficient process by providing an ARN during the dispute management process, reducing costs per claim, and increasing chargeback success rates. In this article, Quavo experts detail the importance of providing an ARN and the benefits that follow.
What is an ARN?
An Acquirer Reference Number, or ARN, is a unique number created in credit or debit Visa® and Mastercard® transactions. The ARN is assigned to a transaction as it moves through a payment flow. ARNs are valuable to fraud and dispute shops, issuers, and merchants. If an account holder is expecting a refund and the refund is delayed or missing, issuers will utilize the unique ARN to help trace the refund to inform the account holder of the status. Just as the card holder’s bank can trace the transaction, the merchant’s bank can also use the ARN to track the payment themselves. ARN’s are critical for tracing unauthorized transactions, as they prevent unauthorized charges from being processed.
Why does Quavo Require an ARN?
Issuers who rely on manual tasks to manage chargebacks are more at risk for overlooking the importance of leveraging ARNs during the fraud and dispute process. Outdated technology and practices for fraud and dispute investigations prevent institutions from reaching the full potential of automating their fraud and dispute management process. This is why Quavo requires clients to provide ARN access when implementing our fraud and disputes solution, QFD ™.
Issuers who provide QFD™ with an ARN can fully leverage QFD’s Get Next Work task prioritization feature, which prioritizes claims by the regulations under which they fall. A client cannot experience QFD’s features and benefits without an ARN, such as the automation factors within case enrichment, data collaboration, and matching. Providing an ARN allows our clients to experience rapid resolution times, cost savings, and decreased strain on back-office resources. Once Quavo has been granted access to ARN data, we can leverage automation as follows:
The case enrichment process begins immediately when a claim is submitted through QFD’s self-service portal or a back-office agent. This process is performed via service calls to the client’s system of record. These calls allow QFD™ to identify the disputed transaction via ARN data, then QFD™ can obtain and display the relevant case information in a matter of seconds. In this step, QFD™ removes the need to go to Visa/Mastercard to get further transaction details, establishing a more efficient first step in the process.
Following enrichment, the system moves to collaboration. Service calls to merchant collaboration (Verifi & Ethoca) are made to automate the chargeback process. This automation is directly tied with QFD’s speed to resolution and requires ARN data to take place. The ARN data allows us to automate the chargeback process for Visa and MC claims, increasing the agents’ ability to work claims more efficiently, removing the step required to go to the Visa and MC systems to complete the chargeback process. The access to the ARN data allows QFD™ to automate 50-80% of chargebacks in the first five days, assuring regulatory compliance.
The last piece of the workflow that benefits from ARN access is matching. QFD™ can match merchant credits, fees, and pending transactions during the matching process, allowing for further automation throughout the investigation. The provided ARN data upfront allows for faster automation, benefitting the account holder, issuer, and merchant, creating a streamlined and enhanced process.
An ARN is a key that unlocks the door for automation. Without an ARN, the automation through QFD™ is severely reduced. Providing an ARN establishes a path for your financial institution to become successful. As Fintech partnerships with financial institutions become more commonplace in the world of digital banking, new industry standards like ARN integration are vital to continued innovation. Providing data to Fintech partners is crucial and needs to become standard to implement beneficial collaborations. As we move toward an automated world, it is imperative to remember that automation becomes impossible without data.
If you are looking to change the way you work disputes, contact us online or via experts@quavo.com. Start automating for tomorrow, today.
