Hello Clever accounts come in two shapes. A standard merchant account is for a business collecting payments for itself. A Clever Connect account is for a platform collecting payments on behalf of many merchants, where money from multiple merchants and markets lands in the same place. The distinction matters because it is decided at onboarding and shapes how you reconcile, who you can onboard, and whether you can charge your own fees.
If you sell your own goods or services, a standard account is what you want. Clever Connect is for platforms with merchants underneath them.

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Which one do you need?

Standard merchant account

You collect payments for your own business. Funds land in your Payments Accounts, you settle them to your own bank account, and Hello Clever prices the payment processing to you.

Clever Connect account

You run a platform. Merchants transact through you, each one needs its own balance and its own reporting, and you want to control onboarding and set your own fees.
A simple test: if the answer to “whose money is this?” is ever “someone else’s”, you need Clever Connect.

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Side by side

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What Clever Connect adds

Traditional payment infrastructure was built for a single merchant. Clever Connect is built for platforms, where the operational complexity grows with every merchant you add.

Dedicated balances

An individual balance for each merchant and each revenue stream, in 25+ currencies. Funds land in the right place on the way in, so there is no manual reconciliation on the way out.

Treasury Accounts

Merchants hold settled funds locally without needing a traditional bank account of their own. See Treasury Accounts.

Merchant onboarding you control

You own the full onboarding experience: what information you collect, how it is presented, and when a merchant is activated.

Platform revenue

Set and collect your own fees from merchants for payment processing, turning payment volume into a revenue stream rather than a cost line.

One merchant dashboard

Manage accounts and balances across every market from a single place, alongside growth and loyalty tools.

Compliance support

Per-merchant segregated accounts give you the audit trail your obligations depend on.
Treasury Accounts are currently available in AUD. JPY and USD support is planned. For the current position, see supported currencies.

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Built for these platforms

Marketplaces

Many sellers, one checkout, and funds that need to reach the right seller.

Franchise networks

Head office visibility across every location, with each location keeping its own balance.

SaaS platforms

Payments embedded in the product your customers already use to run their business.

Gig platforms

High volumes of payouts to individual earners, tracked separately.

Payment service providers

A merchant portfolio to onboard, price, and settle under your own brand.

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Compliance and reporting

Because every merchant sits in its own segregated account, the record of who received what is kept at the source rather than reconstructed afterwards. That supports:
  • AML/CTF monitoring, with per-merchant activity that can be monitored and reported on individually.
  • ATO reporting in Australia, where platform operators have reporting obligations for the sellers they facilitate.
  • Japan’s Instalment Sales Act requirements, which apply to platforms handling instalment-based transactions.
Clever Connect gives you the account structure and records that support these obligations. It does not remove them. You remain responsible for meeting the regulatory requirements that apply to your platform. See KYC and AML/CTF.

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What stays the same

Moving to Clever Connect does not change the payment rails underneath. You still get the same real-time bank payments, cards, and Multi-Currency coverage, the same integration options, and the same API. If your account was created before the Clever Connect launch, nothing changes for you. You continue on the Aggregated Balance model with no balance migration, no historical transaction migration, and no impact on existing settlements or withdrawals. See existing merchants.

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Getting a Clever Connect account

Clever Connect is set up with the Hello Clever team rather than through self-serve sign-up, because your balance model and merchant structure are configured during onboarding.
1

Talk to the team

Contact Hello Clever to discuss your platform, the markets you operate in, and how you want merchants structured. See Create a Merchant Account for the ways to get in touch.
2

Confirm your balance model

Clever Connect platforms use the Dedicated Balance model so each merchant keeps its own funds. Your model is set once and cannot be changed after activation, so confirm it before you go live. See balance models.
3

Design your merchant onboarding

Decide what you collect from merchants and when you activate them, then build that flow into your product.
4

Set your fees

Define what you charge merchants for processing on top of Hello Clever’s pricing to you.
5

Go live

Connect your integration, onboard your first merchants, and manage every balance from the Merchant Portal.

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Where to go next