Payoneer exits the escrow business

Firm throws in the towel just two years following entering escrow business.

Payments firm Payoneer is informing clients that it is exiting the escrow business.

The firm began offering escrow services when it purchased Armor Payments in 2016. Later in 2016, Payoneer began offering domain name escrow services.

Its domain name escrow business was aided by Brandon Abbey, who was president of Escrow.com until being let go following that firm was purchased by Freelancer.com.

Payoneer made some inroads into the domain name escrow business. But as others who have tried to tackle the escrow market have learned, it’s a business of thin margins. Scale is required to run an escrow service profitably.

Losing a key domain escrow service will be difficult for many people in the domain name industry. It’s always good to have at least two strong competitors in order to keep prices down and push firms to improve their service and features.

For example, Payoneer had better “know your client” tools than Escrow, or at least a smoother policy for implementing legal requirements surrounding them.

In an email, Payoneer Head of Enterprise Strategy & Business Development Matt Watts wrote:

While we have been excited and honored to service prospects and partners like yourself, following careful review of our product portfolio have decided to commit our focus to other areas of the Payoneer business.

As of this evening, the Payoneer Escrow site is still operating.