Payment gateway provider eWay has inked a deal with NAB that it claims will allow it to set up merchant accounts for organisations in just four days.eWay founder and chief executive Matt Bullock said that from 2014 he hoped it would be possible to slice the time taken to open a merchant account to just four hours, and also to offer multi-currency payments options. Bullock said the service should ease the frustration many start-ups or individuals face when they approach a bank for a merchant account. A merchant account is required to allow companies to accept online payments direct to their bank rather than being funnelled through alternative payment platforms such as PayPal.eWay also handles PayPal payments. Bullock advised people to use both eWay and PayPal for online commerce as "they'll sell more".eWay was established in 1998 and claims to be processing A$300 million of online payments through its gateway every month for more than 13,000 merchants in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and Canada.Bullock said that traditional merchant account applications took four weeks to secure, although in some cases they took six months. Some small businesses report sending hundreds of emails and making multiple phone calls to banks to try and arrange merchant accounts only to be knocked back, leaving them with few online payment alternatives.According to Bullock; "The biggest problem with the payment space is how long it takes to set things up at the vendor end."eWay Merchant Services allows users to apply online for a merchant account directly from the eWay website. NAB in conjunction with eWay will then work through the due diligence associated with the request, generally approving suitable applications within four days according to Bullock.Using the merchant account doesn't come cheap however. Bullock said that merchants would be charged a rate of 2.2 per cent, 30 cents per transaction and $25 a month to use the merchant account in conjunction with eWay's payments gateway. Bullock said that the company had spent six months working with NAB, figuring out the processes required for speedy merchant account set-up. Companies that prefer to work with their existing bank, rather than NAB, still have the option to use the eWay payments gateway he said.Separately, eWay announced this week that it had joined the NetSuite SuitePayments program, which uses a cloud computing-based e-commerce system that allows companies to manage all aspects of online commerce from ordering through to payment.