Giving merchants more choice, control, and performance
CP
Claudia Pincovski
12 Aug 2026 / 5 Min Read
Payment orchestration used to be treated as an IT problem, but that's no longer the case. In a conversation with The Paypers' Melisande Mual, Checkout.com's Matthieu Barral explained why orchestration has climbed from the server room to the boardroom, and what's driving that shift. His core message is that fragmented payment stacks are putting revenue at risk, and merchants need speed, resilience, and visibility to protect it.
One acquirer is a gamble, not a strategy
Merchants are moving away from single-acquirer setups because performance isn't consistent. It varies by region, by issuer, and even by card BIN, which means a provider that performs well in one market can quietly underperform in another.
For merchants selling globally, Barral argues that acquirer diversity isn't just a safety net, but a source of leverage. It pits providers against each other, lifts acceptance rates, and smooths the path into new markets.
From quarters to weeks: the pre-integration shortcut
Traditionally, adding a new acquirer meant months stuck in roadmap purgatory. Pre-integration changes that equation by turning a multi-quarter slog into a process that takes only a few weeks.
That speed matters because payment performance can't be judged in theory. Merchants need to route real volume, test outcomes in production, and compare results directly. Pre-negotiated commercial terms and a lighter onboarding process remove the friction that often stalls these projects before they get off the ground.
Even merchants with solid-looking approval rates could be leaving money on the table, since a rival acquirer might be performing better in the same market. As Barral put it, every basis point counts, especially at enterprise scale.
Sharper local acquiring coverage, deeper issuer knowledge, and closer three-way coordination between merchant, orchestrator, and acquirer can help reduce false declines without loosening fraud defences.
Complexity is the new normal, and orchestration is the answer
Payment methods are multiplying, regulations keep shifting, and fraud keeps growing more sophisticated. Together, these forces are driving up complexity across routing, reporting, compliance, and scale. Orchestration platforms exist to absorb that complexity, giving merchants the flexibility to move across payment rails and providers without missing a beat.
It is important to highlight that merchants should never let their payments hinge on a single point of failure. When downtime, sudden risk-rule changes, or issuer-specific issues strike, traffic needs to reroute quickly to protect conversion.
Therefore, the future of payments belongs to merchants who build on partnership, optionality, and continuous performance testing, rather than betting everything on one provider.
About Matthieu Barral
Matthieu Barral is Global Head of Partnerships at Checkout.com, where he leads the company's global partnerships strategy across banks, card networks, alternative payment methods, technology and commercial partners. With more than a decade at Checkout.com, he has held several senior leadership roles, helping shape the company's international growth and partner ecosystem.
Working with many of the world's leading enterprises and fastest-growing digital businesses, Matthieu focuses on building strategic partnerships that give merchants international expansion, improve payment performance, and accelerate innovation across the global commerce ecosystem.
About Checkout.com
Checkout.com processes payments for thousands of companies that shape the digital economy. Checkout.com’s global digital payments network supports over 145 currencies and delivers high-performance payment solutions across the world, processing billions of transactions annually. With flexible and scalable technology, Checkout.com helps enterprise businesses boost acceptance rates, reduce processing costs, combat fraud, and turn payments into a major revenue driver. Headquartered in London and with 19 offices worldwide, Checkout.com is trusted by leading brands such as Spotify, HelloFresh, eBay, Uber, Pinterest, Vinted, Klarna, ASOS, and Sony.
The Paypers is a global hub for market insights, real-time news, expert interviews, and in-depth analyses and resources across payments, fintech, and the digital economy. We deliver reports, webinars, and commentary on key topics, including regulation, real-time payments, cross-border payments and ecommerce, digital identity, payment innovation and infrastructure, Open Banking, Embedded Finance, crypto, fraud and financial crime prevention, and more – all developed in collaboration with industry experts and leaders.
Matthieu Barral is Global Head of Partnerships at Checkout.com, where he leads the company's global partnerships strategy across banks, card networks, alternative payment methods, technology and commercial partners. With more than a decade at Checkout.com, he has held several senior leadership roles, helping shape the company's international growth and partner ecosystem.
Checkout.com processes payments for thousands of companies that shape the digital economy. Checkout.com’s global digital payments network supports over 145 currencies and delivers high-performance payment solutions across the world, processing billions of transactions annually. With flexible and scalable technology, Checkout.com helps enterprise businesses boost acceptance rates, reduce processing costs, combat fraud, and turn payments into a major revenue driver. Headquartered in London and with 19 offices worldwide, Checkout.com is trusted by leading brands such as Spotify, HelloFresh, eBay, Uber, Pinterest, Vinted, Klarna, ASOS, and Sony.
