Practical guide

Payment gateways

A merchant account is not a bank account and the approval is separate. Acquirers assess your website, refund policy, delivery model and expected chargeback rate, and for many e-commerce businesses this is a slower gate than the licence.

Who you are actually applying to

An acquiring bank or a payment service provider, not the licensing authority. They take on the chargeback risk if you fail to deliver, which is why they underwrite you the way a lender would rather than the way a supplier would.

What they look at

Your website — terms, refund policy, contact details, delivery timelines — your licensed activity, your expected volume and average transaction value, and your sector's chargeback history. A site that is not live yet is hard to approve.

The sequence. Each stage depends on the one before it.

Applied to: An acquiring bank or a payment service provider
Prerequisite: A valid trade licence with the matching activity, and usually a corporate bank account
Assessed on: Website content, refund policy, delivery model, expected volume
Rolling reserve: Common for new merchants — a percentage held back against chargebacks
Timeline: Days to several weeks depending on the provider and sector
High-risk sectors: Travel, supplements, subscriptions and digital goods face stricter terms

What to watch. Subscription and recurring billing is assessed separately from one-off payments. A gateway approved for single transactions may not permit recurring charges, and discovering that after launching a subscription product means refunding subscribers.

Get the licence and the activity right
An e-commerce activity on the licence is normally a precondition.
Build the site properly first
Terms, refund and delivery policies, contact details and pricing all get read.
Open the corporate bank account
Settlement generally goes to an account in the company's name.
Apply to acquirers
Approach more than one — appetite differs sharply by sector.
Plan for a rolling reserve
New merchants commonly have a percentage held back for a period.

Questions

Apply to an acquiring bank or payment service provider with a valid trade licence naming an e-commerce activity, a corporate bank account and a live website carrying proper terms, refund and delivery policies.

Most commonly an incomplete website, a refund policy that does not exist, a mismatch between the licensed activity and what the site sells, or a sector the acquirer treats as high risk.

A percentage of your settlements held back by the acquirer for a set period as protection against chargebacks. It is standard for new merchants and affects your cash flow materially in the first months.

One question

Payment gateways