When a merchant’s funds are held upstream, you sit in the middle of a dispute that is not yours.
An acquirer withholds a settlement. A reserve release date passes. The merchant looks to you — and the counterparty is a partner you depend on. Referring the file to JvHAM takes you out of that position: the merchant gets an assessment at no cost, and the dispute stops running through your relationships.
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The position a referral resolves
Payment companies, gateways and advisers see held funds before anyone else does. When it happens, the merchant expects help — and mediating puts you between a client you serve and a counterparty you rely on. Whatever the outcome, one relationship pays for it. A referral separates the roles: you remain the merchant’s partner, and the claim gets a party whose only relationship in the matter is with the merchant.
Your merchant relationship
The merchant gets an independent assessment of the file at no cost and no obligation, and pays nothing unless funds are recovered. You brought them a route, not a bill.
Your upstream relationship
The dispute moves to us. You do not argue a merchant’s case against a counterparty you settle through tomorrow.
Your workload
No data requests, no active input. The documentary record — agreements, settlement reports, statements — already sits with the merchant.
Your discretion
Nothing about the file is reported back to you without the merchant’s written sign-off. Until then, you know only that the introduction was made.
How a referral works
- 01
Introduce
You put the merchant in touch with us, or — with their consent — pass us their details. That is the whole of your involvement.
- 02
We assess
We review the service agreement and the settlement record and establish the quantum. If the file does not hold, we say so plainly and the matter ends there. No cost, no obligation.
- 03
We pursue
We carry the work, the correspondence with the counterparty and the cost — through to litigation or arbitration where the file warrants it. No recovery, no fee for the merchant.
- 04
The referral share
On recovery, and once the merchant has signed off on disclosure, you receive a briefing on the outcome and invoice a pre-agreed share of the fee JvHAM collects. The share comes out of our fee — it does not reduce what the merchant receives.
The share itself is agreed once, in writing, before the first referral — it varies with the nature of the files, not from case to case. For how the recovery itself proceeds, see the process.
What we ask of you
An introduction. Nothing more. The merchant holds the agreements, the settlement reports and the correspondence — everything the assessment needs. You are never asked for transaction data, internal records or a view on the merits, and you take no position against any counterparty.
When to refer
Not every held balance is a file. These are the signs that one is worth an assessment:
- A settlement due date has passed without payout or reconciliation
- A rolling reserve remains held after its stated release date
- The relationship was terminated with a balance still unresolved
- A final balance was declared without a statement behind it
- A risk-review freeze has outlived its stated review period
If several apply, the assessment costs the merchant nothing — and a clear “no” from us is also an answer they can close the matter on. Time limits apply and vary by jurisdiction; assess early.
Give the merchant a route. Keep your relationships out of the dispute.
JvHAM (J. van Huuksloot Asset Management B.V.) specialises in the recovery of locked merchant funds from PSPs, EMIs, banks and acquirers across the EEA and the UK, on a no-win-no-fee basis. We work with payment companies, gateways and advisers whose merchants face held funds upstream, so that the dispute never has to run through their relationships.
This page is general information and does not constitute legal advice. Referral arrangements are agreed individually and in writing, and are subject to the disclosure and conduct rules that apply to the partner’s own regulatory position.