Paytech is the layer between a merchant or platform and the money: acquiring, processing, orchestration, routing and reconciliation. It is where margins are made and lost, and where a surprising number of otherwise sound products discover that their payment economics were never viable.
We work the commercial and structural side of the stack — which acquirers and processors fit the model, how orchestration and routing should be configured, what the scheme and acquirer economics actually look like at your volumes, and how the contracts should be written so the stack can evolve.
The engagement is deliberately not a vendor-selection exercise. The question is not which provider is cheapest today, but which architecture lets you add markets, instruments and redundancy without renegotiating everything.
- You are launching a payment product or merchant service and need the acquiring and processing stack designed.
- Authorisation rates are poor and you do not know whether it is routing, risk rules or the acquirer.
- Payment costs are eroding margin and the rate cards are hard to compare.
- Your provider agreements prevent you from adding methods, markets or a second provider.
Orchestration is the leverage point
How transactions are routed across providers determines authorisation rates and cost far more than the headline rate of any single processor.
Economics at your volume
Interchange, scheme fees, acquirer margin and gateway cost are modelled against your actual basket size and mix, not against an illustrative rate card.
Contracts written to evolve
Payment agreements are usually multi-year. The terms that matter are the ones governing change — adding methods, markets and providers without penalty.
- Payment-stack architecture — acquiring, processing, orchestration and routing
- Provider strategy and shortlist matched to your model and markets
- Authorisation-rate and routing-rule analysis
- Cost model covering interchange, scheme fees, acquirer margin and gateway
- Contract review with a focus on change and termination terms
- Negotiation and integration support through to live processing
- 01
Map the transaction
From the customer’s payment to settlement in your account, with the provider and the cost at each step identified.
- 02
Diagnose the economics
Where the cost actually sits, where authorisations are lost, and which of those two problems is the priority.
- 03
Design the stack
Acquirers, processors and orchestration configured for the markets you serve now and the ones you intend to add.
- 04
Negotiate the terms
Rates and, more importantly, the change, volume-commitment and termination terms negotiated with evolution in mind.
- 05
Integrate and review
Support through integration, then measurement against the expected authorisation rate and cost per transaction.
Stack and economics review
A written diagnosis of your payment architecture, provider costs and where margin is being lost.
Paytech programme
Architecture design, provider selection, contract negotiation and integration through to live.
Cost and authorisation optimisation
A focused engagement on routing rules, risk configuration and provider mix for an operating stack.
- Businesses looking for the cheapest processor irrespective of durability — the savings rarely survive a change in risk appetite.
- Merchants intending to misrepresent their business or volumes to a provider to obtain better terms.
Usually through routing and risk configuration before provider change: sending each transaction to the provider most likely to approve it, tuning the risk rules that generate false declines, and using the network’s account-updater services. We measure where declines originate before recommending any change.
Several, in most cases, for redundancy and for routing. The exception is where volumes are small enough that the commercial terms from a single provider outweigh the benefit of diversification. Either way, the architecture should make adding a provider straightforward.
Orchestration is the layer that routes each transaction across multiple providers according to rules. It is worth having when you have more than one acquirer, when you operate in multiple markets, or when failover matters. Below that threshold it adds cost without benefit.
Yes, and frequently that is the fastest route to improvement. We review the change, commitment and termination terms alongside the rates, because the terms that limit your options are often more expensive in practice than the pricing itself.