Two detailed case studies showing how MeridAx transformed payment outcomes — for a high-risk gaming merchant and a West African fintech card issuer. Client identities have been anonymised at their request.
A licensed online gaming operator based in Central Europe had been rejected by three acquiring banks in twelve months. Their chargeback ratio had briefly exceeded scheme thresholds during a fraud spike, making them toxic to most standard acquirers — despite holding a full gaming licence and operating a fully compliant business.
The operator had a chargeback ratio of 1.4% — above the standard 1% Mastercard threshold — after a coordinated fraud attack eight months prior. Although the ratio had since recovered to 0.6%, mainstream acquirers were still declining applications on sight. They were processing through a substandard gateway with a 71% approval rate, losing an estimated €180,000 per month in declined legitimate transactions.
MeridAx reviewed the operator's full processing history, fraud prevention stack, and chargeback documentation. Rather than hiding the historical ratio, we presented it transparently to three specialist gaming acquirers in our network — alongside the remediation steps taken and current performance data. We matched the operator to a gaming-specialist acquirer with deep experience managing post-fraud recovery accounts, and negotiated a tiered MDR structure that rewarded continued ratio improvement.
MeridAx connected our gaming business to the right acquiring bank within 72 hours after three prior rejections. Our approval rate is now consistently above 93%. Their understanding of high-risk acquiring in the European market is second to none.
A regulated fintech operating in West Africa wanted to launch a Mastercard prepaid card product for their digital wallet customers. Despite holding a relevant financial services licence, they had no existing BIN sponsor relationship, no scheme membership, and no direct processor connections. Quotes from traditional processors ranged from 12 to 18 months to launch.
The fintech had a clear product vision and a growing digital wallet user base of 85,000 customers across three West African markets. They needed a prepaid Mastercard that worked at ATMs, POS terminals, and for online payments — but lacked the BIN sponsorship, scheme connectivity, issuer processing, and the clearing and settlement infrastructure required. Building these relationships independently would have taken 12–18 months and required significant upfront capital.
MeridAx immediately matched the fintech to a BIN sponsor and issuer processor in our network with deep experience in West African markets. We managed the entire bank relationship — from initial due diligence and KYC submission through to technical integration, scheme registration, and card production. MeridAx also connected the fintech to a local card personalisation bureau and coordinated the end-to-end go-live across all three markets simultaneously.
MeridAx connected our fintech to the right issuer processor and BIN sponsor to launch our prepaid card programme in under eight weeks. They handled the entire bank relationship — from scheme connectivity to go-live. Their expertise in the African payments landscape is outstanding; they understood our regulatory context from day one.
Whether you're a high-risk merchant or a fintech launching a card programme — tell us your challenge and we'll show you how we solve it.