Payment Processing by Industry
Acquirers underwrite by category, business model and geography. These pages explain what providers assess in each industry and which details decide whether your profile is accepted.
Choose your industry
iGaming
iGaming acceptance is decided almost entirely by licensing and player geography. Providers that support a Malta or Curaçao licensed operator are rarely the same ones that support a UK or Ontario facing brand.
Forex & CFD
Trading platforms are underwritten on regulatory status and client geography. A regulated brokerage in a recognised jurisdiction has a materially different provider pool than an offshore entity taking retail clients worldwide.
Crypto
Crypto acceptance depends on what the customer receives. On-ramps selling digital assets, custodial exchanges and crypto-adjacent SaaS are underwritten as three different risk profiles.
Adult
Adult businesses are processed under specific card-scheme programmes with mandatory content controls. Approval depends on documented compliance far more than on pricing negotiation.
Nutraceuticals
Supplement acceptance turns on marketing claims and billing model. A straightforward one-off retail catalogue is a very different case from a free-trial-to-continuity offer.
Subscriptions
For recurring billing the provider decision is mostly about retry logic, card-lifecycle tooling and authentication, those three drive more revenue than the headline processing rate.
Travel
Travel is underwritten on the gap between payment and travel date. The longer that delivery lag, the larger the acquirer's exposure and the more likely a reserve becomes.
Ecommerce
For standard retail ecommerce the deciding factors are authorisation rate, the local payment methods your markets expect, and settlement terms, usually in that order.
Why industry matters so much
Your merchant category code, licence requirements and delivery model set the boundaries of which providers can underwrite you at all. Within those boundaries, volume, ticket size and dispute ratios decide pricing and reserve terms. Many industries below are treated as high-risk payment processing , which is a classification, not a judgement.
If you are still mapping the landscape, start with payment service providers and acquiring banks, or browse the payment guides.
Which providers fit your industry?
Add your business essentials once. Your profile is matched against provider criteria before any application is sent.
Find providers for my businessNothing is shared with a provider until you submit your onboarding pack. Approval is always the provider's decision.