# What is Restricted countries?

> Restricted countries are the jurisdictions a prop firm will not sell to or pay out to, because of sanctions, regulation, payment provider terms or platform licensing.

- Source: https://pipvalley.com/glossary/restricted-countries
- Publisher: PipValley - web design studio for prop trading firms
- Updated: 2026-10-03

In a prop firm, the restricted list is driven by several sources at once: sanctions lists, local regulation of trading-related products, the payment processor's own exclusions and the trading platform vendor's licensing terms. A country can be restricted for any one of these reasons.

The list needs to be enforced at checkout (billing country, IP and geo checks) and again at KYC, and kept in one place so that the website, checkout and terms always agree.

Lists change when sanctions, regulation or vendor terms change, so they need an owner and a review date.

## Why it matters

Selling an evaluation to a trader you will later refuse to pay is a dispute, a chargeback and a public complaint in one. Publish the restricted list on your site, block checkout from those countries, and update the list from one source of truth whenever a vendor or regulator changes its position.