Transparency
Regulatory Status & Scope of Service
RetainPay AI Limited supplies business-to-business software. We are a technical service provider to merchants who already hold their own relationship with a regulated payment service provider. We instruct retries of payments on the merchant's own provider account, under the merchant's own authority. We never come into possession of payer funds, never hold a payment account, never issue payment instruments, never purchase debt and never contact a merchant's customers to demand payment.
RETAINPAY AI LIMITED · Company number 17355838 · Registered in England & Wales
Summary of our assessed position
Does RetainPay require FCA authorisation as a payment institution?
No — it is assessed as outside the Payment Services Regulations 2017 on the technical service provider analysis.
Does RetainPay require e-money authorisation?
No — it issues no stored value and holds no funds.
Is RetainPay a debt collection agency?
No — it does not pursue payers; it re-presents an existing card mandate through the merchant's PSP.
Is RetainPay a credit broker or lender?
No — it advances no credit and introduces no borrower to a lender.
Is RetainPay regulated for data protection?
Yes — processor for merchant transaction data; controller for its own account and marketing data.
How the service actually works
1. Connect
The merchant supplies its own PSP credentials, which are encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM) and used only for that merchant's account.
2. Failure capture
PSP webhooks notify the platform of failed charges. Amount, currency, timestamp and a normalised decline reason are recorded. No movement of funds.
3. Analysis and scheduling
A decline-code taxonomy and scheduling engine — one-hour minimum gap, 72-hour maximum window, avoidance of the original decline hour, weekend avoidance for bank-side declines, cooldowns after risk declines, maximum three attempts — determines when a retry should be attempted. A structured, human-readable rationale is stored for every decision.
4. Retry execution
At the scheduled time the platform instructs the merchant's PSP to re-present the existing charge or invoice, using the mandate the PSP already holds.
5. Settlement
Recovered funds settle 100% into the merchant's own PSP balance and then to the merchant's own bank account. RetainPay never sits in the flow of funds.
6. Fee
RetainPay invoices the merchant separately, in arrears, a success fee of 10% of value recovered. Non-recovery attracts no fee.
What we do
- Supplies business-to-business software for the recovery of failed recurring card payments.
- Receives failed-payment data from the merchant's own payment service provider (PSP).
- Determines the timing and sequencing of further authorisation attempts, within fixed constraints.
- Sends retry instructions to the merchant's PSP using credentials the merchant supplies.
- Produces reporting, analytics, statements and invoices for the merchant.
- Charges a performance-based software fee, invoiced separately to the merchant.
- Operates a business-introducer (partner) programme paid from RetainPay's own fee.
- Processes end-customer data strictly on the merchant's documented instructions.
What we do not do
- Does not receive, hold or control payer funds.
- Does not execute payment transactions as principal.
- Does not issue payment instruments or electronic money.
- Does not operate a payment account or hold merchant balances.
- Does not provide money remittance.
- Does not purchase, factor or take assignment of receivables.
- Does not carry on debt collection or debt administration.
- Does not lend, broker credit or advance funds.
- Does not create new payment mandates or authorities.
- Does not alter the amount, currency or payee of a charge.
- Does not give regulated investment, credit, insurance, tax or legal advice.
- Does not expose payment credentials to partners or ordinary users.
- Does not hold or store full card numbers.
- Does not act as a credit reference or fraud bureau for third parties.
- Does not guarantee a recovery outcome.
Data protection
Data protection law, not financial services law, is where our heaviest binding obligations sit. For merchant transaction and customer data we act as processor and the merchant as controller, under Article 28 UK GDPR processing terms. For our own accounts, billing, partner relationships and marketing we act as controller. Merchant provider credentials are encrypted at rest and never shown in plaintext in any interface, access is restricted so each merchant and partner sees only their own records, and administrative access is separately gated. Our scheduling engine decides only the timing of a further authorisation attempt — it does not score creditworthiness or decide whether a person receives goods, credit or a service, and it stores a readable rationale for every decision.
How we describe our performance
We publish only historical, period-specified results drawn from our own records, and we describe them as such rather than as a prediction or guarantee for any individual merchant. We do not claim FCA authorisation, regulation, permission or oversight, and we do not claim certifications we do not hold. RetainPay is gateway-agnostic; Stripe and Adyen are our current live integrations.
Status of this statement
This page is a plain-English summary of our own assessed regulatory position and scope of service. It is not a legal opinion given by a solicitor or an authorised person, and it is not guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority. It does not form part of any contract; our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy govern use of the service. Questions from merchants, partners, advisers or funders are welcome at legal@retainpay.online.