When merchants talk about payments, they often focus on conversion, cost, and customer experience. Acquirers, however, see something else: risk.

One of the biggest misconceptions in acquiring is that risk is static, a set of fixed thresholds merchants simply need to stay under.

When merchants talk about payments, the conversation usually comes back to three things: conversion, cost and customer experience. But acquirers see a completely different picture.

The language of payments risk has changed. Once, acquirers were judged mainly on chargeback ratios, a clean chargeback report at the end of the month, or a quarterly review…

Chargeback ratios define liability and exposure under the scheme rules, but acquirers are now driven by fraud counts when deciding which merchants face scrutinity.

While chargebacks are commonly seen as the main risk factor in an acquirer’s portfolio, the true defining metric today is fraud, specifically fraud count.

Getting approved for a merchant account can be viewed as a major milestone, especially for businesses with complex setups, multi-jurisdictional footprints or high-risk service models.

Managing payments risk today isn’t just about fraud. While fraud and chargebacks remain critical, they are only part of a broader ecosystem of risk controls now under greater scrutiny.