A payment service provider (PSP) is the broad industry term used to describe companies that provide a turnkey solution to allow merchants to accept payments online without having to set up their own dedicated merchantMerchant merchant An individual or business that accepts payments in exchange for goods or services. account. PSPs operate a single merchant account and offer individual merchants sub accounts which makes it very quick to onboard a merchant. The companies discussed in this post are all PSPs using a variety of different channels (online, point-of-sale, mobile) and are active in different geographies.
A payment gatewayGateway gateway A service that authorizes and processes card payments for online merchants. Examples include Stripe, Adyen, and PayPal. is a technology that sits on top of a merchant’s own account or a PSP, that performs a number of functions on merchants behalf. They analyse, encrypt and transmit transaction data to an issuing bank to request authorisation and then authorises the transfer of funds when its authorisation is approved. PSPs generally force merchants to use their built-in payment gateways but if a merchant has their own merchant account then they can choose to connect to any gateway.
Vibhu Arya is a fintechFintech fintech
Short for financial technology, refers to tech-enabled innovation in financial services. and payments expert with 15+ years of experience simplifying how money moves across digital and retail ecosystems. He’s led strategy and partnerships at Citibank, Adyen, and IKEA, and helped scale fintech startups (Snapdeal, iPaylinks) to $1B+ valuations. Vibhu’s expertise spans cards, crypto, cross-border, and real-time payments. He is the founder of PaymentsPedia.com, where he writes about the future of payments.
📧 vibhu@paymentspedia.com | LinkedIn