Optimize. Payment Performance.
A strategic retainer in which senior advisors work alongside your team to move the metrics that matter: approval rate, cost per transaction, fraud and chargeback ratios. We lead on smart routing, PSP strategy, fraud tuning and 3DS and SCA optimization. The engagement concludes when the uplift is in production.
The PSP strategy that was right a year ago may not be right today.
The regional payment landscape changes quickly. New local methods launch, issuer behavior evolves, commercial terms drift and fraud patterns shift. Teams that have plateaued on approval rate or cost often do not have a strategic problem. They have an optimization problem. That is where a senior retainer delivers clear, measurable value.
- We plateaued on approval rate several quarters ago.
- We believe we are paying too much per transaction but cannot benchmark it.
- Our fraud rules block too many good customers, or too few bad ones.
- We rely on a single PSP and the concentration risk concerns us.
- We know we should implement smart routing but do not know where to begin.
A structured, evidence-led engagement.
Each step produces a defined artifact you can share with your leadership team, your board, or your acquirer partners.
- Month 01
Baseline and plan
We establish a clean baseline of approval rate, cost, fraud and chargebacks by PSP, issuer, BIN, market and method. We agree KPIs and targets, and lock a 90 day plan with named owners.
- Month 01 to 02
PSP strategy and commercials
We benchmark your commercial terms against the regional market, identify where to renegotiate or add a redundancy provider, and support your team through RFP and integration planning.
- Month 02 to 04
Smart routing and redundancy
Design and launch a routing layer, either within your existing orchestrator or built in-house, tuned to each market's issuer behavior, with automatic failover, retry logic per decline code and cost-aware cascades.
- Month 02 to 04
Fraud and 3DS optimization
Segment fraud rules by risk band, tune the 3DS strategy to use exemptions where available, and reduce friction on low-risk traffic without increasing chargebacks.
- Month 04 to 06
Measure, iterate, hand over
Every two weeks, we review live metrics against targets, ship the next iteration, and hand over dashboards and runbooks your team owns after we complete the engagement.
What you will receive.
- Measurable approval rate uplift against targets set at engagement kickoff.
- Quantified reduction in cost per transaction through PSP strategy and routing.
- Production smart routing and cascading logic tuned to your markets.
- Fraud rules redesigned and segmented by risk band.
- 3DS and SCA strategy with exemption logic and challenge-flow tuning.
- Renegotiated commercial terms with acquirers and PSPs.
- Monitoring dashboards and runbooks for your team to own after the engagement.
Scope, team composition and commercial terms are agreed with your leadership team at kickoff. Every engagement is outcome-led and accountable to specific KPIs.
Regional fintech (wallet and card). UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt
Challenge
Approval rate at 85 percent across three markets on a single PSP. Cost per transaction was 40 to 60 basis points above regional best-in-class. No redundancy was in place.
Approach
Six-month retainer. Added a second PSP with orchestration, built decline-code-driven cascades, tuned 3DS challenge thresholds by issuer and renegotiated acquirer fees with the incumbent.
Outcome
Approval rate increased by 6.4 points on blended volume. Cost per transaction reduced by 22 percent. Full redundancy achieved with sub-second failover. The retainer paid for itself within the second month.
- Approval rate uplift
- +6.4%
- Cost per transaction reduction
- −22%
- Return on retainer (year 1)
- 12x
Ready to discuss optimize?
Thirty minutes, no obligation. We will walk through what a VizierPay engagement would look like for your stack, your markets and your priorities.