Overlooked Industries May Hold the Future for Payments Innovation

In the fast-evolving world of FinTech, where innovation can often race ahead of regulation, emerging markets present both an opportunity and a challenge for business-to-consumer (B2C) payment providers.

Many emerging sectors such as gaming, hemp-based wellness and even online pharmacies are becoming test beds for the next generation of payments innovation.

These verticals, often deemed “high-risk” by legacy players and overlooked due to reputational or regulatory risks, require a nuanced understanding of regulations and consumer behavior.

“Emerging markets can get a bad reputation due to regulatory or reputational risks, but we see those as promising opportunities,” Ben Griefer, COO at Maverick Payments, told PYMNTS.

“A lot of payment processors shy away from them,” Griefer added. “There’s concern around this big unknown of how to manage risk and mitigate the risks. But for us, it’s about entering the market and supporting it from a compliant and long-term perspective.”

This long-term view requires more than just appetite for risk; it demands infrastructure built for compliance, fraud prevention and scalable solutions.

Digitization as a Catalyst for Clarity

The rise of RegTech — technology focused on automating compliance — has been transformative for emerging industries. Whether it’s adapting to shifting state laws or enabling faster customer onboarding, these tools allow businesses to remain nimble. And in markets where the rules can vary wildly, even at the county level in the U.S., digitization is no longer a luxury but a necessity.

“The friction generally is the enhanced due diligence that we’re required to do to ensure the merchants are complying with card brand rules and regulations,” said Griefer, noting that friction can quickly become drag unless met with smart tools and automation.

For its own part, Maverick has focused on integrating legal, underwriting, risk and compliance teams into the onboarding process from day one to meet these challenges.

“It’s juggling the risk and compliance piece of it while also making sure it makes business sense,” Griefer said.

This can be particularly impactful in sectors with varying legal standards like CBD, gambling or pharmaceuticals. Maverick’s own ability to partner with compliance-driven platforms and integrate seamlessly into shopping carts or APIs gives them a leg up in delivering scalable, legally sound solutions.

And it’s not stopping at payments.

“We’re starting to see that get applied to other services like banking-as-a-service,” Griefer said, pointing to neobank and lending platforms that are building compliance directly into their customer onboarding.

Read also: Embedded Finance Drives Growth and Personalization in Digital Ecosystems

Looking Ahead Toward a Playbook for the Future

Fraud prevention and chargeback management are two more critical issues that can make or break the financial viability of a business. With increasing amounts of digital transactions in emerging markets, fraud risks are rising, and companies must adapt quickly to mitigate these threats.

“Gaming tends to have increased fraud, especially friendly fraud, where customers dispute charges for intangible products,” Griefer said. “However, because these businesses use RegTech to onboard customers, they gather detailed information, making it easier to fight these chargebacks and prove the legitimacy of transactions.”

What excites Griefer most is that Maverick has built an infrastructure purpose-fit for these challenges. And from a performance perspective, many of these so-called risky businesses are proving to be surprisingly stable.

“We’re constantly looking at opportunities to see how we can support them and do it in a compliant way,” he said. “Once you get over the fact that maybe there is this enhanced due diligence, the performance of a lot of these businesses from a chargeback perspective is actually very low because of the additional onboarding — certifications, licensing, due diligence — they have to do.”

Ultimately, the real opportunity lies not just in payment enablement, but in enabling growth. By leaning into the complexity rather than avoiding it, innovators are finding that it is possible to write a new playbook for B2C payments in high-potential, high-scrutiny markets.

“Innovation is constant,” Griefer said. “But when you start leveraging these technologies and these tools that are available, it becomes really manageable to support them for these various financial services.”

For emerging markets and the entrepreneurs shaping them, that support may be the difference between marginal survival and scalable success.