Payment Policy

Effective date: February 17, 2026 | Version: 2026.02-global

This Payment Policy defines controls for balances, payouts, refunds, chargebacks, and financial risk handling to protect publishers, advertisers, and platform operations.

Financial operations may vary by jurisdiction and payment provider constraints.

Scope and Applicability

Applies to all earnings, invoice adjustments, payout requests, and settlement records.
Applies to advertiser charges and publisher disbursements across supported markets.
Applies to payment method onboarding, verification, and method changes.
Applies to anti-fraud checks, sanctions screening, and suspicious transaction review.
Applies to chargeback handling, dispute resolution, and refund workflows.
Applies to third-party payment processors used for fund collection or payout.

Mandatory Requirements

Settlement and Reconciliation

Payout-eligible earnings must reconcile with validated impression and click records.
Settlement schedules and cutoffs must be clearly documented.
Manual ledger adjustments require approval and written reason codes.
Pending balances remain subject to fraud and compliance review.

Payout Method Security

Payout account holder details must match verified account identity.
Bank or UPI changes require step-up verification before activation.
Sensitive payment data must be masked or tokenized in user interfaces.
Default payout methods must be visible and revocable by account owners.

Fraud and Financial Crime Controls

Payment activity must be monitored for anomalies and abuse signals.
Sanctions and restricted-party screening applies where legally required.
Suspicious transactions may trigger temporary payout holds.
Chargeback trends must be tracked with threshold-based escalation.

Prohibited Practices

Using stolen payment credentials or unauthorized third-party payout accounts.
Submitting false identity, tax, or banking information.
Manipulating traffic metrics to inflate payable balances.
Routing funds through prohibited entities or sanctioned channels.
Attempting duplicate withdrawals through UI or API abuse patterns.
Tampering with financial records to hide improper adjustments.
Refusing required cooperation in dispute or fraud investigations.
Bypassing required approval controls for high-risk payment actions.

Governance, Monitoring, and Enforcement

Finance, risk, and security owners jointly review critical payment controls.
Segregation of duties is required for initiation, approval, and reconciliation tasks.
Payment-method changes and payout events must be fully audit logged.
High-risk payout requests require enhanced due diligence before release.
Material incidents trigger holds, investigation, remediation, and formal closure records.
Policy exceptions require written approval, compensating controls, and expiry dates.
User-facing status updates must communicate payout state and resolution path.
Policy updates are versioned and announced before enforcement where feasible.