Nuvei and Humboldt Merchant Services faced FTC actions only four days apart. The details are different, but the message to processors, PayFacs, sponsor banks, and fintechs is similar: merchant underwriting and monitoring are becoming an enforcement issue, not just an operational one.

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.

A group spent $3M and years trying to build its own payments gateway — only to scrap it entirely. Here's what went wrong, and why most companies should never attempt this without seasoned payments experts.

Thinking of building your own payments gateway to save a few cents per transaction? Unless you love costly compliance headaches, nonstop maintenance, and card brand update chaos, think again.