Our Forex Broker Keeps Getting Rejected for a Merchant Account — Here's Why
If you are running a forex brokerage and you have been turned down by two, three, even five banks in a row, it can start to feel personal. It isn't. Forex brokers sit at the intersection of two things banks are structurally cautious about: leveraged financial products, and cross-border money movement . Once you understand the underwriting logic, the rejections stop being mysterious and start being fixable. The Real Reasons Banks Say No 1. MCC classification risk Forex brokerage typically falls under MCC 6211 (securities/commodities brokers) or gets flagged under financial services categories that carry mandatory card network registration. Many domestic Indian banks simply don't carry the underwriting capacity for this MCC and decline rather than build it out for one applicant. 2. Regulatory ambiguity around FEMA Under India's Foreign Exchange Management Act, retail forex trading outside RBI-approved currency pairs on recognized exchanges is restricted for Indian residen...