PSP switching strategy

Based on original research conducted for the MPE 2026 merchant-only workshop, Michal Rozynek, Practice Lead for Merchant Services at PaymentGenes, shares why enterprise merchants are choosing optionality over replacement.

The decision to switch a Payment Service Provider is rarely clean. For enterprise merchants, it sits at the intersection of commercial pressure, technical complexity, and internal politics, often leaving teams stuck between the cost of staying and the risk of moving.

To bring data-driven clarity to this debate, PaymentGenes Consultancy hosted a closed-door workshop at MPE 2026, drawing on responses from nearly 60 enterprise merchants, 69% with revenues above EUR 1 billion and 79% operating globally. The conversation moved past anecdotes and politics, surfacing a clearer picture of how the enterprise payments landscape is shifting.

Three findings stood out:

84% of enterprise merchants are considering switching PSPs, but it is operational friction, not satisfaction, that keeps them in place.

The ‘big switch’ is being quietly replaced by orchestration and multi-acquiring, as merchants build flexibility without taking on full migration risk.

Rising costs, product gaps, and global expansion challenges are pushing PSP relationships toward a tipping point.

A market under pressure, but not breaking

The headline conclusion from the workshop is that PSP relationships at enterprise scale are under quiet but mounting pressure, yet this pressure is not translating into wholesale switching. Instead, merchants are building optionality.

Orchestration layers, multi-acquiring strategies, and RFP processes are increasingly used as much to renegotiate commercial terms as to replace providers outright. At the same time, legacy multi-PSP setups are becoming harder to manage. More integrations, more complex reconciliation processes, and greater operational overhead mean merchants are spending significant internal resources just to maintain the status quo.

The result is a market in transition driven not by disruption, but by gradual structural change.

Inertia, not loyalty

Perhaps the most important insight from the research is that retention at the enterprise level is rarely a sign of satisfaction. It is a sign of friction.

Average PSP satisfaction scores remain stable at 7.3/10, but that figure masks a deeper reality: nearly four in five merchants are actively considering switching or at least keeping the option open. The barriers to action are overwhelmingly operational:

83% cite integration complexity

66% point to internal resourcing constraints

47% reference contractual lock-in

Add to this the business disruption risk associated with token migration and checkout stability, and the inertia becomes structural. The primary moat for incumbent PSPs is no longer product superiority; it is switching friction. Any innovation that lowers migration complexity, whether technical, contractual, or operational, directly threatens that moat.

‘Merchants are not staying because they are satisfied. They are staying because leaving is complex.’

Commercial pressure reaches a tipping point

If inertia explains why merchants stay, commercial pressure explains when they move. Cost is the dominant trigger, cited by 47% of merchants as the primary driver of change. A further 38% point to a lack of flexibility and misalignment with PSP product roadmaps.

These are not minor frustrations. At a EUR 1 billion-plus scale, merchants expect commercial leverage, tailored pricing, and influence over product direction. When PSPs fail to evolve alongside their clients, dissatisfaction accumulates even when it doesn't immediately translate into a decision to switch.

Authorisation performance and global expansion capabilities compound the pressure further. Even small improvements in authorisation rates can have a material revenue impact, yet many merchants lack full visibility into the metric or its financial implications. Global coverage tells a similar story: 83% of merchants rank it as the most important selection criterion, but delivery scores fall well short, reinforcing the move toward multi-PSP setups.

From switching to layering

Arguably, the most significant structural shift highlighted in the workshop is the move away from ‘big bang’ PSP replacements and toward layered architectures.

While 57% of merchants plan a renegotiation or RFP between 2026 and 2028, full rip-and-replace remains rare. The operational risks, particularly around token migration, checkout disruption, and internal capacity, are simply too high for most organisations to absorb.

Instead, merchants are turning to orchestration layers and activating multi-acquiring strategies. Around 66% are already using or planning orchestration, allowing them to dynamically route transactions, optimise performance, and reduce dependency on any single provider.

This fundamentally changes the competitive landscape. The next wave of PSP competition will not be winner-takes-all. It will be about earning a place within a merchant's ecosystem and competing continuously on performance, cost, and capability.

‘The next phase of PSP competition is not winner-takes-all. It is continuous performance within a multi-provider setup.’

The capability gap that's quietly widening

Beneath relatively stable satisfaction scores, capability gaps are growing. Fraud and risk tooling consistently underperforms compared to other PSP capabilities, pushing merchants toward specialist providers or in-house solutions.

At the same time, expectations of the broader payment stack are rising: better data visibility, improved reconciliation, support for local payment methods, and faster time-to-market for new regions. As merchants scale globally and diversify their payment mix, the mismatch between PSP delivery and merchant expectations is becoming harder to ignore.

What's on the horizon

The payments landscape is becoming more complex, not less:

A2A and Open Banking are gaining traction, with 52% of surveyed merchants offering these options today.

BNPL is firmly established, with 64% active adoption across the sample.

Wero is increasingly seen as a credible alternative to local APMs, with some merchants already anticipating shifts in their payment mix.

Agentic commerce is entering strategic conversations, particularly in travel and digital goods, but signalling a broader move toward automated, programmable payments.

For PSPs, the message is clear: providers without a credible roadmap across these emerging areas risk being marginalised as merchants diversify.

From passive waiting to an active strategy

The workshop closed with a pragmatic conclusion: passive waiting is no longer a viable strategy. The question is no longer simply ‘stay or switch’; it is how to manage optionality in an increasingly complex ecosystem.

The merchants best positioned for the next phase will be those that take a structured approach: understanding their cost baseline, quantifying the value of performance improvements, mapping infrastructure gaps, and defining clear triggers for action.

Equally important is defining what ‘good’ looks like. What would a PSP need to deliver to justify a long-term relationship? And what specific trigger - a cost threshold, a market expansion gap, or a product failure - would justify initiating a switch?

These are strategic decisions that will define how merchants navigate the next phase of payments evolution.

‘Passive waiting is not a strategy. Merchants are already building their exit options.’

About author

Michal Rozynek is Practice Lead for Merchant Services at PaymentGenes Consulting, where he advises enterprise merchants, acquirers, ISVs, and investors on growth strategy and market positioning across the global payments ecosystem. With prior roles spanning Visa, Bitstamp, KPMG, and Elixirr, alongside his own consultancy, Michal brings a hands-on perspective on embedded finance and the evolving payments landscape, alongside 15 years spent in strategy consulting advising globally leading companies. He holds an MBA from the University of Oxford and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and writes regularly on the structural shifts reshaping technology and society.

About PaymentGenes Consulting

We combine deep sector expertise with best-in-class management consulting to help our clients create value with payments innovations. Whether you are an enterprise merchant, PSP, acquirer, issuer, payment scheme, incumbent bank, or fintech, we leverage our global expertise from across the value chain to research, benchmark, strategise, design, perform the vendor selection, and implementation for your next- generation payments solutions. 

Our Consultancy has supported leading brands with their payments projects across the globe. 

PSP switching strategy: why enterprise merchants are choosing optionality over replacement