Manual merchant underwriting is still the norm for many payment processors and software platforms—and it’s costing teams more than they realize.

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When risk teams are buried in spreadsheets, toggling between multiple browser tabs, and manually reviewing each application, the cost isn’t just in time. It’s in missed revenue, inconsistent risk decisions, and operational drag that keeps scaling just out of reach.

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Let’s break down the real cost of manual merchant underwriting—and what happens when you switch to automation.

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The Hidden Cost of Manual Underwriting

On paper, manual merchant underwriting seems manageable. A small team handles merchant reviews, checks for red flags, and signs off on approvals. But at scale, this approach becomes a bottleneck.

Here’s what it really costs:

• Time delays: Reviewing each merchant manually can take hours or days—delaying onboarding and frustrating legitimate businesses.
  
  
• Inconsistency: Decisions often vary between analysts, creating risk gaps and compliance issues.
  
  
• Missed threats: Without full visibility into unstructured data like websites or social profiles, high-risk merchants can slip through.
  
  
• Operational burnout: Risk teams are stretched thin, focusing more on repetitive reviews than strategic analysis.
  
  

And perhaps most importantly: manual processes can’t keep up with today’s fraud landscape.

Why Manual Underwriting Falls Short

Fraud is evolving. Fast. First-party fraud, synthetic identities, and professional fraud rings are no longer outliers—they're part of the daily underwriting queue.

Manual merchant underwriting leaves too much room for human error and not enough room for proactive decision-making. By the time red flags are spotted, the damage is often done.

Add to that the rise of embedded finance and global merchant onboarding, and it's clear: the manual model simply doesn't scale.

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Enter Merchant Underwriting Automation

Modern risk teams need tools that do more than review documents—they need intelligence. That’s where merchant underwriting automation changes the game.

At Coris, we’ve built AI-powered infrastructure to help platforms:

• Automate risk scoring across hundreds of merchant signals—from business classification to bankruptcy checks
  
  
• Detect identity fraud and impersonation in real time with AI-driven Merchant Fraud Models
  
  
• Streamline KYB and verification workflows, reducing onboarding time from days to seconds driven by AI agents tuned for merchant underwriting
  
  
• Make consistent, auditable decisions using rules-based engines within a unified platform
  
  

The result? Faster onboarding, fewer manual reviews, and reduced fraud exposure—without sacrificing trust.

How Coris Helps Teams Scale Merchant Underwriting

Coris is built specifically for platforms onboarding small and medium-sized businesses at scale. Our MerchantProfiler gives you structured insights from unstructured merchant data—website scans, content categorisation, entity matching, and more.

Coupled with our Merchant Fraud Model and Risk AI Agents, Coris automates the underwriting process so risk teams can focus on what matters: scaling safely.

Manual Reviews Shouldn’t Hold You Back

If your underwriting process is slowing growth, creating inconsistency, or putting your team on edge, it’s time to rethink your approach. Manual merchant underwriting might work in the early days—but it doesn’t work at scale.

Merchant underwriting automation isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s the foundation for efficient, intelligent risk operations.

Ready to leave manual behind?

See how Coris.ai can automate your merchant underwriting

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