Zūm Rails has integrated credit card acceptance into its comprehensive payments ecosystem through a partnership with Fiserv, marking the final piece of their unified payment solution.
Following this milestone, Zūm Rails announced that they will enable companies to integrate credit card functionality directly into their platforms, covering both the United States and Canada. This move was possible due to the company obtaining payments facilitator status through its collaboration with Fiserv.
The development signals a unified payment solution encompassing bank rails (Interac, EFT, ACH, RTP, FedNow), Visa/Mastercard debit, Open Banking data aggregation, and now credit card acceptance under one platform spanning the United States and Canada.
Navigating Cross-Border Challenges
Credit cards are a significant consumer payment method across North America, with 23% of transactions in the US and 33% in Canada using this method. However, traditional credit card acceptance involves third-party processors that offer limited customisation options, redirect-based checkout processes, and higher transaction fees. For businesses operating in both countries, these complexities are further exacerbated by separate regulatory requirements, compliance frameworks, and vendor relationships.
Zūm Rails’ role as a payments facilitator aims to streamline this process by allowing companies to embed customised checkout experiences directly into their platforms without relying on third-party hosted payment pages. According to the company, businesses will be able to control various elements such as button placement, error messaging, and confirmation screens.
Furthermore, the platform consolidates payments from multiple sources—credit cards, ACH, real-time payments, debit, and cross-border transactions—into a unified dashboard. Onboarding and integration can be completed in days, providing businesses with simultaneous access to both US and Canadian markets.
Early adopters include Questrade, a brokerage platform that is using the solution to accept credit card payments for educational content, and Zolo, a real estate company applying it to property transactions.
Strategic Advantages
This announcement comes after Zūm Rails’ recent partnership with Mastercard aimed at enabling businesses to issue their own debit and credit cards. With the payments facilitator status in place, the platform now offers a solution that allows companies to both extend credit and accept credit card payments within one environment. This combination widens the scope of Embedded Finance use cases supported by the platform.
The collaboration with Fiserv expands on an existing relationship focused on Embedded Finance in the US, now extending into credit card acceptance.
For businesses previously constrained by rigid, pre-built checkout flows or extensive custom infrastructure builds, Zūm Rails provides a consolidated solution that reduces the number of providers, banking relationships, and integration points required to operate across two distinct regulatory environments.
