Refund reserves

After settlement, a refund can only go ahead if the item recipient can cover it (see Refunds after settlement). A Merchant that has had its money paid out, or has stopped trading, may not – and the Payer would be left without a refund.

A refund reserve lets you cover for the item recipient. It is one of your own Liquidity Accounts that you fill with money in advance. When the item recipient cannot cover a refund, the reserve lends it the money, and is paid back from the item recipient's future income.

Ping still takes no risk: the reserve holds real money that you have put there, and the refund is refused if the reserve cannot cover it either.

Setting up a reserve

1. Create a Liquidity Account in the currency you refund in. It must belong to your Tenant.
2. Fill it, for example with a payment to the Liquidity Account or a transfer between accounts.
3. Keep an eye on its balance with Get Liquidity Account, and top it up as needed.

Using a reserve

Name the reserve on the refund with reserve_liquidity_account_id:

{
  "currency": "SEK",
  "reason": "requested_by_customer",
  "items": [
    { "id": "00328a14-fd85-4c08-a02b-7ecbeed110d1", "amount": 10000 }
  ],
  "reserve_liquidity_account_id": "8f0d7f0e-4b54-4f0a-9a43-1d4f0f6e2a11"
}

The reserve is only used when it is needed:

• On an order that has not settled, the reserve is ignored. The refund is paid from the Payment.
• On a settled order, the item recipient covers the refund itself if it can. The reserve is only used when its settled balance is too low.
• When used, the reserve covers the whole refund, not just the part the item recipient is short.
• If the reserve cannot cover it, the refund is refused with insufficient_reserve_balance, and nothing is taken from anyone.

What happens next

Paying the reserve back

Once the item recipient has received enough new settled money, Ping pays the reserve back automatically.

Until the item recipient has repaid all it owes:

• It gets no payouts. Its settled money stays with Ping, so it can go to the reserve first.
• If the item recipient is a Liquidity Account, payments made from it with Ping credit are declined.

This makes sure the money in your reserve comes back to you before the item recipient is paid anything else.

Example

A Merchant has had all its money paid out and now holds 0.00 kr. A Payer asks for 50.00 kr back for an item sold by that Merchant.

1. The Merchant cannot cover the 50.00 kr, so the reserve lends it 50.00 kr.
2. The refund is COMPLETED. The Payer has the full 50.00 kr back.
3. The Merchant's payouts are paused. Once 50.00 kr in new payments has been settled to it, the 50.00 kr goes back to the reserve.
4. The Merchant's payouts resume.

Without a reserve, step 1 would have refused the refund with insufficient_settled_balance.