Sector primers and regulatory notes.
Short, factual writing on the regulatory architecture, mechanics and recovery posture the firm encounters in practice. Not legal advice and not opinion.
- Sector primer
Frozen PSP funds in insolvent estates: the asset class administrators often write off.
When a card-accepting business fails, its payment provider does not always let go of its money. A rolling reserve, a withheld settlement, a chargeback hold — these can survive the insolvency intact, and they are routinely left unclaimed.
4 July 2026 · 7 min read - Practical guide
How the assignment or mandate of a PSP claim works.
Once an estate has identified a claim worth pursuing, the next question is practical: how is the right transferred, what does the estate commit to, and what does it retain?
4 July 2026 · 8 min read - Sector primer
Where the money sits: a counterparty and jurisdiction map for insolvency practitioners.
The counterparty holding an estate’s frozen funds is rarely down the road. It is a payment institution, e-money institution or acquirer authorised somewhere else in the EEA or the UK, answerable to a regulator the practitioner has never dealt with.
4 July 2026 · 7 min read - Practical guide
Could this estate have a recoverable PSP claim? Five signs to look for.
Not every failed card-accepting business left money behind with its payment provider — but a surprising number did. Five signs, each checkable in the file you already have, can usually tell you within minutes whether it is worth a closer look.
4 July 2026 · 7 min read - Sector primer
What happens to merchant funds when an EMI loses its licence.
The regulator acts, the portal freezes, the account manager goes quiet. The money is not gone — but what you recover is decided by the procedure, and by the state of your documentary record.
12 June 2026 · 7 min read - Sector primer
Rolling reserves: when does retention become unlawful?
How release clauses are typically written, the three common stretches — perpetual risk review, reclassification, set-off against unspecified fines — and what the documentation must show.
12 June 2026 · 6 min read - Practical guide
Terminated by your PSP: a 30-day checklist for protecting your claim.
The first 30 days decide what you can recover. What to export before portal access closes, what to put in writing, and what not to sign.
12 June 2026 · 6 min read - Practical guide
The deductions you never agreed to: fines, chargebacks and phantom fees.
Three patterns — undocumented scheme fines, chargeback maths that does not reconcile, fees that appear at offboarding — and a method for reading a settlement file.
12 June 2026 · 6 min read - Firm note
Why assignment changes the conversation with your PSP.
What the CARA does, what the merchant keeps, and why the counterparty’s cost-benefit calculation moves when the claimant of record is a specialised assignee.
12 June 2026 · 5 min read - Practical guide
Scheme recoveries that never reached you.
Recoveries won inside the schemes’ machinery that never completed the final hop. How the absence shows in the accounting, and the reconciliation that proves it.
12 June 2026 · 6 min read - Sector primer
Supervisory engagement as part of the recovery framework.
Why the firm treats engagement with the home Member State supervisor as a track within the recovery, not as a separate regulatory matter.
22 April 2026 · 6 min read - Sector primer
Scheme passthrough — what is owed and where it goes missing.
The lifecycle of scheme recoveries, and where in the PSP-to-merchant flow they typically fail to land.
8 April 2026 · 5 min read - Regulatory
PSD3 and PSR — the timeline as it currently stands.
The proposed third Payment Services Directive and accompanying Regulation. Where we are in the legislative process and what it means for accrued merchant claims.
18 March 2026 · 4 min read