Choosing payment providers for new markets

Opening a new region is mostly a payments problem. Clients will not fund with a method they do not trust, and a brokerage cannot rely on a single card acquirer for every country. This is the checklist we walk through with brokerages adding a payment provider on RedCherry's wallets and payments module.

Start from what clients there already use

Every market has its default: local bank transfer in some, a national e-wallet in others, cards in a few, crypto where banking is slow. Ask prospective clients and partners in the region before signing a provider. The right PSP is the one whose methods a client recognises on the deposit screen.

Check the full cost, not the headline fee

• Transaction fee and fixed fee per deposit and per withdrawal
• Currency conversion spread, which often costs more than the fee
• Settlement time and rolling reserve
• Chargeback handling and dispute fees
• Minimum monthly volume or fees

Confirm the withdrawal path

Deposits get the attention, but withdrawals create the tickets. A provider that accepts deposits quickly but returns funds slowly, or only to the original method, will generate support load. Know how withdrawals work, how long they take and what the client sees. In RedCherry, withdrawal approval rules are set per method, so a slower provider can have a manual review step without affecting the others.

Keep it to one wallet

However many providers you add, the client should see one wallet per currency and one transaction history. Adding a gateway should mean enabling it for a country, not building a new flow. RedCherry's twelve integrated gateways all credit the same multi-currency wallets, with fees and net amounts reconciled automatically, so finance does not learn a new report per provider.

Match verification to risk

Some methods carry more fraud risk than others. Deposit permissions tied to KYC levels, transaction limits per method and provider-specific risk controls let a brokerage open a higher-risk method only to verified clients, or cap it until a client has a history.

Questions to ask a provider before signing

• Which of our target countries do you cover for deposits, and for withdrawals?
• What is the full cost per transaction, including conversion spread and fixed fees?
• How long do settlements and withdrawals take, and is there a rolling reserve?
• How are chargebacks handled, and what do they cost?
• Do you send webhook confirmations so deposits can be credited automatically?
• What are the volume minimums and the notice period to leave?

What finance should see after launch

Every deposit through the new provider should arrive as a transaction with gateway, fee and net amount already filled in, matched to the provider's report, and credited to the client's wallet without a manual step. If finance is re-keying anything from a provider dashboard, the integration is not finished. In RedCherry that reconciliation is automatic for every integrated gateway, and the transaction history exports the same way for all of them.

Running two providers in one market

One provider per market is a single point of failure. A card that one acquirer declines may go through with another, and a provider that is down for maintenance on a busy evening costs deposits you will not get back. Because gateways in RedCherry are switched on per country, a brokerage can offer two providers in a key market, so the client sees a second option on the same deposit screen. Reports by gateway then show which one converts better, which informs the next negotiation on fees.

Where crypto fits

In markets where cards are often declined or bank transfers are slow, crypto deposits can be the method that actually works. RedCherry's crypto gateways, ALT5, CoinsBuy and NOWPayments, confirm deposits on chain and credit the client's wallet in the currency you configure, with the same reconciliation as every other method. The usual rules still apply: deposit permissions follow the client's verification level, and withdrawals follow the approval workflow you set for the method.

Crypto also suits clients who already hold stablecoins and want to fund without converting through a bank first. Be clear about which coins and networks you accept, show the credited amount in the wallet currency before the client sends funds, and decide whether withdrawals go back in crypto or by another method. Writing those answers into the knowledge base before launch saves a week of tickets.

Withdrawal rules per method

• Automatic approval under a limit for methods with low fraud risk and fast returns
• Manual review above the limit, or always, for methods where returns are slow or disputes are common
• A clear policy on returning funds to the original method, shown to the client before they request a withdrawal
• Separate queues per method, so finance can see at a glance where requests are waiting

Costs finance should model before signing

The cheapest provider on paper is often not the cheapest in practice. Model a typical month for the new market: the number and average size of deposits, the share that will be withdrawn, the expected chargeback rate and the currency conversions involved. Then price that month with each provider's full fee schedule, including the fixed fees, the spread and the reserve. The result is usually a different ranking from the headline fees, and it gives finance a number to check against once real transactions arrive.

The first month after launch

• Deposit volume and count by gateway for the new country, from the dashboard
• First-deposit conversion for clients in that country compared with the markets you already serve
• Support tickets about deposits and withdrawals, by category, to find a confusing step early
• Withdrawal times per method, from request to approval to payment

When a provider is not integrated yet

If the provider a market needs is not on the list, our team scopes it as a custom integration. The scoping covers how deposits are confirmed, how withdrawals are paid out and which methods and currencies the provider supports, and the timeline is agreed before work starts so the market launch can be planned around it.

Telling clients about a new method

A new payment method only helps if clients in the market know it is there. Update the deposit screen copy and the knowledge base article for that country, brief support on how deposits and withdrawals work with the new provider, and tell the IBs who bring clients from the region, since they will be asked first. Then send a short campaign to verified clients in that country who have not funded yet; for many of them, a familiar method is the reason they stopped.

Watch the first deposits closely. A provider that works in testing can still surprise real clients, with an extra confirmation step, a redirect to a bank page or a currency they did not expect, and the first few tickets are the cheapest time to fix the wording.

Plan the switch-on

Enable the new provider for the target country only, announce it to clients there through a segmented campaign, and watch deposits by gateway in the dashboard for the first weeks. If the provider you need is not integrated yet, our team scopes it as a custom integration before the launch date.