Private equity firms often have significant payments volume spread across portfolio companies, processors, gateways, contracts, and pricing models. The processors may understand that payments footprint better than the sponsor does. That can hide leverage, duplication, cost, risk, and monetization opportunities.

The Visa debit antitrust fight raises a bigger payments strategy question: what actually competes with a Visa debit transaction? The answer matters for routing, Durbin, pay-by-bank, alternative rails, network economics, and the platforms deciding how money moves.