{"id":20064,"date":"2020-05-03T10:58:12","date_gmt":"2020-05-03T08:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.centralpay.eu\/why-did-my-payment-service-provider-classify-me-as-a-high-risk-merchant\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T15:14:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:14:06","slug":"why-have-i-been-called-a-high-risk-merchant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/blog\/why-have-i-been-called-a-high-risk-merchant\/","title":{"rendered":"Why was I designated a high-risk merchant?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\"><strong>What is a high-risk merchant?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The accumulation of three criteria allows us to classify the risky activities of online merchants:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Sensitive nature of the sale, such as dating sites, online gaming, or software downloads.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>High number of payment-related incidents, particularly in terms of fraud, chargebacks, and bad debts.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Countries identified as high-risk, included in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fatf-gafi.org\/fr\/home.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FATF<\/a> (Financial Action Task Force) &#8220;blacklist&#8221; <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, if an e-commerce business operates in a sensitive sector, regularly subject to fraud and chargeback issues (particularly through card payments), and is based in a country blacklisted by the FATF, it is a high-risk merchant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\"><strong>Do all PSPs accept high-risk merchants?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>If your high-risk business offers online payments, you should already be familiar with payment service providers such as Stripe or SecurionPay, which accept this type of e-commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, faced with the growing number of AML\/CFT incidents, these PSPs are intensifying their regulations. Thus, on the merchant side, it is not uncommon to receive emails informing them that their payment accounts have been closed or frozen overnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Indeed, for PSPs, accepting flows from high-risk activities is far from trivial, and in particular, gives rise to significant responsibilities, in the eyes of the regulator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\"><strong>What changes for high-risk e-merchants?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The &#8220;high-risk merchant&#8221; categorization distinguishes them from their less risky counterparts, and therefore leads to some notable differences in the offerings proposed by payment service providers, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:1px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">Different pricing model<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As high-risk payments involve greater risks, they are more strictly regulated by law. This is why PSP pricing is always higher than for &#8220;traditional&#8221; e-commerce merchants. This pricing includes three fees:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fixed fees, deducted from the amount of each card transaction processed (interchange, card networks, and services)<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fixed fees, deducted at the start of the project (go-live)<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Exceptional fees<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">Restricted payment methods<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>High-risk merchants may encounter limitations on their payment methods compared to &#8220;traditional&#8221; e-commerce merchants. These restrictions stem in particular from the very nature of their business, which is subject to high chargebacks or fraud. This is why payment by credit card is preferred in these situations, allowing PSPs to adopt a prudent approach to protect the interests of their customers as well as their own.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">Mandatory security reserve<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>For security reasons, payment service providers require high-risk e-merchants to set aside a security reserve, an amount retained by the payment service provider to cover potential refunds or disputes. The amount of this reserve is determined based on the risk of the activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">More extensive underwriting procedure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When subscribing to a PSP, high-risk merchants undergo a more rigorous process, including in-depth checks on the company&#8217;s legitimacy, financial history, and compliance with applicable regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">Closer monitoring<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The regulator requires PSPs to conduct closer monitoring and provide frequent reporting for these merchants, enabling the early detection of any suspicious activity during online card payments and thus minimizing risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:60px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-outline is-style-outline--1\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-color has-link-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/en\/pricing\/high-risk-merchant-account\/\" style=\"border-radius:5px;color:#212121\">Discover how CentralPay handles high-risk payments \u279c<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"BlogPosting\",\n  \"name\": \"Why was I labeled a high-risk merchant?\",\n  \"headline\": \"Why was I designated a high-risk merchant ?\",\n  \"datePublished\": \"May 03, 2020\",\n  \"dateModified\": \"May 03, 2020\",\n  \"description\": \"High-risk merchant : understand the criteria that lead to higher fees, increased monitoring, and limited payment options.\",\n  \"image\": {\n  \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n  \"height\": \"600\",\n  \"width\": \"1000\",\n  \"url\": \"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pexels-fauxels-3184357.jpg\"\n  },\n  \"author\": {\n  \"@type\": \"Person\",\n  \"name\": \"CentralPay\"\n  },\n  \"publisher\": {\n  \"@type\": \"Organization\",\n  \"name\": \"CentralPay\",\n  \"logo\": {\n  \"@type\": \"imageObject\",\n  \"url\": \"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/assets\/images\/logo.png\"\n  }\n  },\n  \"mainEntityOfPage\": true,\n  \"url\": \"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/en\/blog\/why-have-i-been-called-a-high-risk-merchant\/\"\n}\n<\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the past ten years, e-commerce has experienced a major boom. There were more than 177,000 active French merchant sites in 2021, a 12% increase compared to the previous year. And this is not without impact. Indeed, the number of incidents related to online payments has also increased significantly, impacting e-commerce merchants with respect to their payment service providers. To prevent abuses (fraud, money laundering, etc.), some online merchants are now categorized as &#8220;high-risk merchants.&#8221;    <\/p>\n<p>What is a High-Risk Merchant? What criteria is the categorization based on? What are the impacts on business and payment?   Decryption<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-use-cases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20064"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62116,"href":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20064\/revisions\/62116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralpay.dev.innovest.fr\/fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}