1) Payment methods: what to support (and why)
A broker's payment stack is not "one gateway". It's a routing layer across methods, currencies, regions, and risk profiles. The right mix depends on your market (MENA, LATAM, SEA, Africa, EU), your average deposit size, and the type of product (retail brokerage vs prop challenges).
Cards (Visa/Mastercard)
- Pros: high conversion, familiar UX, instant confirmation
- Cons: higher chargeback risk, stricter compliance, MID fragility for high-risk verticals
- Best practice: enforce 3DS where possible, add velocity limits, and require verified identity for payouts
Local payment methods (bank transfer rails, instant pay, alternative methods)
Local methods are often the conversion winner in emerging markets. They can be cheaper than cards and more stable (depending on the provider), but you need strong reconciliation and clear settlement times.
E-wallets
E-wallets can be strong in specific regions. The key is building your back office rules so that deposit source and payout destination are consistent (to reduce third‑party payment abuse).
Crypto (optional)
Crypto is a strategic decision. It can unlock geographies and reduce settlement friction, but it increases compliance burden (source of funds, blockchain monitoring) and can raise banking partner concerns.
2) How to choose a PSP (without painful churn later)
Brokers commonly pick a PSP based on a demo checkout experience — then discover later the real constraints: rolling reserves, settlement delays, strict refund rules, or sudden termination. The goal is to select providers and design your system so you can switch providers without rewriting your platform.
PSP selection criteria (broker/prop specific)
- Approval appetite: do they actively support brokers/prop, or treat you as an exception?
- Routing flexibility: can you do multi-MID or multi-provider fallback?
- Payout support: do they support withdrawals reliably (not just deposits)?
- Risk tooling: 3DS settings, fraud scoring, webhooks, dispute APIs
- Reporting: per-transaction export, settlement reports, fees visibility
- Compliance alignment: KYC requirements, forbidden countries, refund rules
- Operational reality: support SLAs, dedicated account manager, escalation path
Don't accept a "single provider" architecture
Even if you start with one PSP, you should structure your integration to support multiple providers. Otherwise the first time a provider pauses your MID or your conversion drops in one region, your growth stalls.
3) A non-breaking integration architecture (frontend + CRM + ledger)
The safe architecture separates payment intent from payment execution and from ledger settlement. That gives you clean retry logic, anti-duplication controls, and consistent reporting across providers.
Core objects you should model
- PaymentIntent: user wants to deposit X in currency Y via method M
- PaymentAttempt: each PSP attempt (can be retried or switched to fallback PSP)
- Transaction: authoritative internal ledger entry (credit/debit) once confirmed
- PayoutRequest: withdrawal request + approval + compliance checks
Idempotency and webhooks are mandatory
PSP callbacks can arrive multiple times or out of order. Your webhook handler must be idempotent (same event → same result). Avoid "credit wallet on any success callback" unless you can guarantee deduplication.
Frontend UX that increases conversion
- Show method availability by region/currency
- Auto-suggest the best method based on success rate
- Clear fee/settlement disclosure
- Fast failure handling with fallbacks (instead of dead ends)
If you want a reference structure: your product pages already emphasize integrations and payments. You can link users to your platform pages like Forex CRM payment providers and position this guide as a practical, educational companion.
4) Fraud, chargebacks, and compliance controls
Payments is where "growth marketing" and "compliance engineering" collide. If you don't define the rules in your CRM/back office, your PSP will define them for you — by suspending processing.
Minimum controls for brokers
- KYC gates: before first withdrawal; sometimes before high-value deposits
- Third‑party payments: block or strictly review (name mismatch, unusual patterns)
- Velocity limits: per user, per card, per IP/device, per country
- Risk scoring: device fingerprinting, BIN checks, geolocation anomalies
- Dispute evidence: store logs (consent, TOS acceptance, service usage, support tickets)
Chargeback reduction: practical playbook
- Set expectations: clear terms, refund policy, withdrawal times
- Verify early: KYC on first meaningful event, not after the first dispute
- Keep communication: instant emails/SMS on deposit and withdrawal status
- Fast support: most disputes are "I don't recognize this" + slow response
5) Withdrawals and reconciliation (where most brokers fail)
Withdrawals aren't just "send money back". They're a workflow: compliance checks, source-of-funds logic, method rules, operational approvals, and settlement reconciliation.
Withdrawal rules to define upfront
- Return-to-source: pay back to the original method when possible (reduces disputes)
- Partial payouts: handle mixed deposits across multiple methods
- Fees: transparent, configurable by tier or region
- Approval thresholds: amounts that require manual review
- Refund-first policy: if card deposit was recent, refund rather than pay out externally
Reconciliation essentials
Your finance team needs to answer: "What was collected?", "What settled?", "What fees were taken?", and "What is the net position by currency/provider?"
- Automate settlement imports (daily)
- Map PSP transaction IDs to internal intents and ledger entries
- Track reserves/holds separately from available balance
- Alert on mismatches (success in PSP but no credit internally, and vice-versa)
6) Implementation checklist
Before you integrate
- Define target regions + currencies + expected deposit bands
- Decide which methods are required for launch (MVP) vs phase 2
- Write your deposit/withdrawal policy (refunds, return-to-source, KYC gates)
- Decide which events you will log for disputes (consent, product access, support)
During integration
- Implement PaymentIntent + idempotent webhooks
- Implement provider abstraction (so you can add PSP #2 without rewrites)
- Implement routing rules (region/method success rate, fallback)
- Implement admin tools: manual approve/decline, retry, refund, export
After go-live
- Track approval rate by method/region
- Track chargeback ratio and top dispute reasons
- Track payout times and failure reasons
- Review PSP terms quarterly (reserves, settlement days, forbidden geo changes)
Where Brokeret fits
Brokeret is built as a modular platform: CRM, onboarding, integrations, and back office workflows. If you want to connect payments into a scalable operating model (not a patchwork of scripts), start with the product context here: