In general, in one aspect, one or more embodiments relate to a method including receiving, in a business rules engine, input data from disparate data sources. The input data describes a merchant and an application by the merchant to use an electronic payments system for processing transactions between the merchant and customers. Featurization is performed on the input data to form a machine readable vector. By applying the machine readable vector as input to a machine learning model in a machine learning layer, a risk score is predicted. The machine learning model is trained using training data describing use of the electronic payments system by other merchants. The risk score is an estimated probability of the merchant being unable to satisfy an obligation of using the electronic payments system. A business rules engine, based on the risk score, limits use of the electronic payments system by the merchant.