B2BPay Hub

Underwriting

What triggers a processing reserve?

Short answer

A reserve is a held portion of your settlement, released on a schedule, imposed when a processor judges its exposure has increased. The common triggers in B2B are rapid volume growth, average ticket size rising substantially, customer concentration where a small number of customers make up most of your volume, an increase in disputes or refunds, and a business model where payment is taken well before delivery.

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Reviewed by a B2B Pay Hub payments specialist
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The fuller explanation

Reserves are negotiable more often than businesses assume, particularly when financials support the exposure and the growth has an explanation.

Deposits taken against work that will not ship for months are a legitimate trigger, because the processor carries the risk of non-delivery. Custom manufacturing and millwork see this most.

Ask specifically which trigger applied. A reserve imposed for concentration risk is addressed differently from one imposed for dispute ratio.

Important caveats

  • A reserve is not a penalty and does not necessarily indicate a problem with your account.
  • Reserve terms should be in writing, including the percentage, the hold period and the release schedule. If they are not, ask.

Other ways people ask this

These phrasings share the same answer, so they live on this page rather than on duplicate URLs.

  • Why is our processor holding funds?
  • Rolling reserve explained
  • Why did they impose a reserve?

Follow-up questions

Can a reserve be removed?
Often, after a period of clean processing history at the new volume. It is worth asking at defined intervals rather than waiting to be offered.

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Where this fits

QuestionHow are B2B merchants underwrittenUnderwriting assesses the processor's exposure if you fail to deliver what a customer paid for. In B2B the factors that matter most are financial strength, average and maximum ticket size, customer concentration, the gap between payment and delivery, and dispute and refund history. Retail-oriented factors like chargeback ratio matter less; delivery risk matters more, because the amounts are larger and the delivery windows longer.Open GlossaryHigh riskA processor's internal classification for merchant categories with elevated legal, regulatory, reputational or loss risk. It affects pricing, reserves and monitoring.Open GlossaryUnderwritingThe review of licensing, ownership, financials, compliance and risk that determines whether an account is approved and on what terms.Open GlossaryReserveFunds a provider holds back — as a rolling percentage, a fixed amount or an upfront deposit — to cover potential losses.Open

Read next

  1. 1How are B2B merchants underwrittenUnderwriting assesses the processor's exposure if you fail to deliver what a customer paid for. In B2B the factors that matter most are financial strength, average and maximum ticket size, customer concentration, the gap between payment and delivery, and dispute and refund history. Retail-oriented factors like chargeback ratio matter less; delivery risk matters more, because the amounts are larger and the delivery windows longer.

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