Payments Vendor & Partner Selection
Choose processors, gateways, and platforms with someone on your side of the table
We run structured selections for processors, gateways, PFaaS and BaaS providers, CRMs, and fraud tools: requirements, RFP, scoring, reference checks, and commercial negotiation.
Built for every buyer we serve
Any payments or fintech business making a vendor decision with a multi-year commitment.
Why this costs you money
These are the failure modes we see most often in Payments & Fintech Advisory.
Vendor demos are built to hide weaknesses.
Contracts lock you in for three to five years with penalties most buyers never read.
Integration effort is the hidden cost that changes the real price.
Everything included, in writing
Scope is written down before work starts, and changed only in writing. Nothing is added or dropped without a written change order.
- 01Requirements and weighted scoring model
- 02RFP drafting and vendor management
- 03Demo scripts built around your real workflows
- 04Reference checks and technical review
- 05Commercial negotiation support and contract review
All 5 are written into the scope document before work starts. What you actually need is settled on the call, after the Assess read.
From first call to live
3 phases, each ending in something written. Exact dates are set at the Assess step, once the scope is known.
- 01Phase 01
Week 1 to 2
Requirements
- 02Phase 02
Week 3 to 5
RFP and demos
- 03Phase 03
Week 6 to 8
Selection and negotiation
What makes this different
These are specific to Payments & Fintech Advisory, and they are in the scope document rather than only on this page.
The recommendation follows the numbers
Referral, ISO, PayFac, and BaaS modelled side by side on your own volume and merchant mix, before any partner is named.
Terms read before you sign
Revenue share, interchange, reserves, liability, termination, and data ownership reviewed line by line, not summarised.
A shortlist, not one introduction
Providers matched on vertical acceptance, risk appetite, and API quality, then cut down after technical review and references.
Nothing paid by the partner
We take no fee from anyone we recommend, so the shortlist is a recommendation rather than a sales pipeline.
What clients say
We publish no client names. These describe the shape of real engagements in Payments & Fintech Advisory.
See the engagementsWe had been quoted eighteen months and seven figures to register as a PayFac. Midcore mapped the alternative in two weeks and told us plainly that our volume did not justify it yet. That conversation saved us a year.
Sponsor bank diligence had stalled us twice. Midcore rebuilt the package (policies, flow of funds, program narrative) and we were approved on the next pass.
Our agents were spending half their week on paperwork. The desk took the boarding queue, the disputes, and the residual reconciliation. Same headcount on the sales side, materially more selling.
- Written scopeAgreed before work starts, changed only in writing.
- Reporting from your dataEvery number opens to a record you can check.
- Scoped, logged accessRevocable by you at any time.
What the work looks like
Anonymised engagements from across the six core services.
All case studiesA platform earning a thin referral share on customer processing wanted the margin that sat with its processor, without the registration, capital, and compliance headcount a full PayFac requires.
Field-services SaaS platform A stalled sponsor bank application cleared on the next passTwo diligence cycles had ended without a decision. The product was fine; the package describing it was not.
Embedded banking platform An ISO gave its agents their selling week backAgents were spending roughly half their time on statement analysis, applications, and chasing processors. The fix was not more headcount on the sales side.
Independent sales organizationWritten by people who have done the work
The arguments we would make in the room.
All insightsAn ISO agent agreement's vesting clause decides who keeps the residuals on paper. State law can decide it differently once termination actually happens.
9 min read How to Become a Payment Processor, RealisticallyBecoming a processor connected to Visa requires bank-level membership. Almost everyone asking this actually wants one of four other paths.
9 min read How to Start a Merchant Services or ISO BusinessStarting an ISO means registering through an acquirer, not Visa, and budgeting real fees, fines, and PCI DSS obligations before your first merchant boards.
9 min readStraight answers
The questions that come up on almost every Payments Vendor & Partner Selection call, answered before you have to ask them.
Do you receive referral fees from vendors?
Can you negotiate pricing?
How does an engagement start?
What does Payments Vendor & Partner Selection cost?
Can we stop after the Assess?
How long does Payments Vendor & Partner Selection take?
Who actually does the work?
Still not sure Payments Vendor & Partner Selection is what you need?
That is what the Assess is for. Book a 30-minute call and we will tell you which service fits, whether you need one at all, and what the first engagement would cost. We will also tell you when the answer is no.
Ready to talk about Payments Vendor & Partner Selection?
Tell us what is happening. We will tell you whether this service fits, and whether you need it at all.
- 01Within 1 business dayA US-based practice lead replies and books a 30 minute call.
- 02On the callWe map the problem, the volume, the partners, and the constraints.
- 03After the callYou get a written read of one to three pages, yours to keep.
- Handled under NDA
- Written, not a slide deck
- No obligation to continue