Opening a Merchant Account

What is required to open a merchant account: features and client requirements

If your business is based on online trading, the optimal payment method can be credit/debit cards. By processing card payments directly on your website, you can increase sales and improve conversion, which positively impacts your company’s cash flow.

However, to work with cards, you must register a merchant account with a payment system or an acquiring bank (the latter are more demanding of clients), which uses a processing center for technical payment handling. The center’s role is to process financial transactions made by customers using bank cards.

What advantages does a Merchant Account provide?

A properly registered merchant account gives your company access to the global consumer market and sales. Key benefits include:

• Clients can make purchases 24/7 worldwide. Payments are always processed quickly and without delays, even on holidays.
• Consumers can pay online and receive goods by mail. This increases sales because clients spend minimal time and effort to complete transactions.
• Modern security technologies comply with international standards, making your company more attractive to clients.

Why is a Merchant Account required?

A merchant account is an account to which funds are credited once a client pays for goods or services and their data is processed by the payment system.

Opening a merchant account allows you to accumulate numerous small payments. This speeds up transactions and makes them more cost-effective compared to transferring funds directly to a corporate bank account.

When using a merchant account, a Rolling Reserve is formed. A portion of funds is temporarily frozen to cover potential chargebacks, refunds, or fraud-related disputes. Standard Rolling Reserve is 10% of incoming payments and is returned to the merchant after 180 days.

Merchant Account Registration: Offshore Companies

If you own an offshore company, you can open a merchant account, but payment systems and acquiring banks are likely to impose stricter requirements. To increase the chances of success, it’s important to prepare thoroughly for the registration process.

Our specialists will select the most business-friendly conditions and help your offshore company open a merchant account with minimal risk of rejection by the payment system or acquiring bank.

What is needed to open a merchant account

Payment providers avoid regulatory risks, so you must meet certain requirements to register a merchant account. Conditions vary depending on the payment system or bank.

Minimum requirements:

• The company must have a registered settlement account.
• The company must provide corporate documents — charter, licenses, etc. For non-residents, documents must usually be translated into English and submitted with apostille or another form of legalization.
• Confidential information about beneficiaries must be provided (mandatory).
• A detailed refund policy for customers must be submitted.

The merchant account registration procedure requires providing the website URL through which customers will interact when making online purchases. The website must also meet certain requirements:

• Detailed description of goods and services;
• Hosted on paid hosting;
• All website pages under one domain.

How to open a merchant account

The process differs depending on the bank and jurisdiction. Since merchant account registration is complex, it is best handled by professionals. We recommend contacting our specialists for this service.

We will provide detailed consultations and register a merchant account for you. Our team will prepare all required documents while considering your company’s jurisdiction and the requirements of the chosen payment system.