Businesses can now accept Visa and Mastercard payments through the same account they use for transfers and cards
Finsei, a London-based payments company, has launched its payment acquiring for business, allowing existing business clients to accept Visa and Mastercard payments through the same account they already use for other financial services.
The new acquiring services allow businesses to add card acceptance without taking on a separate provider. The movement of funds from card payment transactions to the common Finsei account, which stores the merchant’s euro or any other currency balance, cards and SEPA/SWIFT payments, takes place once the merchant is activated.
In the payment sphere, the term acquiring refers to the services and infrastructure that facilitate the acceptance of card payments by merchants. Acquirer, or acquiring bank, works in collaboration with merchants to process card payments, connect them to card networks (Visa, Mastercard) and banks that provide customers with cards. Merchant acquiring may include payment gateways, transaction processing, authorisation and settlement.
Previously, a business that needed both card acceptance and a settlement account could have to use separate providers for these functions. Finsei’s new approach brings these services together, with card payments managed through a dedicated acquiring dashboard and settlements paid directly into the client’s existing Finsei account.
How a card payment moves
When a customer pays by card, they enter their card details or use another supported payment method and confirm the purchase. Finsei’s acquiring infrastructure, which combines payment gateway and processing capabilities, receives the transaction and routes it through the relevant payment network.
The transaction is then sent through the card scheme, such as Visa or Mastercard, to the customer’s card-issuing bank. The bank checks the card, available funds and other relevant rules before approving or declining the transaction.
The response then travels back through the payment infrastructure to the merchant. In a typical transaction, this process takes place within seconds.
Technology behind Finsei’s acquiring services
For its card acquiring offering, Finsei has selected two technology partners. Hypergate provides payment gateway and routing capabilities, while SilverFlow provides processing and direct connectivity to card schemes.
“Choosing a gateway was never about adding another technology vendor. It was about strengthening our acquiring proposition. Hypergate stood out because of its expertise in payment routing and gateway orchestration — it gives us the control and agility to improve payment performance while keeping the underlying infrastructure efficient. Just as importantly, they think beyond implementation. Payments are never ‘finished’, they’re continuously optimised, and that’s exactly how we work together,” said Artjoms Dozorcevs, CEO of Finsei.
“Too often, processing gets written off as just another piece of infrastructure. We see it as one of the biggest drivers of acquiring performance. That’s why we chose SilverFlow: direct connectivity to card schemes gives us greater control over transaction flows and the ability to continuously optimise authorisation performance. Beyond technology, we value their pace — the payments landscape changes constantly, and we look for partners who are building for where the market is going, not where it has been,” he added.
Acquiring as part of one financial ecosystem
Finsei positions acquiring as part of its wider range of business financial services rather than as a separate product.
The company’s clients can use its business accounts, payment infrastructure, cards, transfers and now payment acquiring services through the same provider.
“We don’t believe businesses need a separate provider for every financial service they use. They need a partner that can bring the right capabilities together through one relationship. At Finsei, acquiring is part of a broader financial ecosystem: businesses that need more than payment acceptance get access to business accounts, payment infrastructure and other financial services through a single point of access. Our role is to reduce complexity, so our clients can focus on growing their business while we focus on making payments perform,” said Artjoms Dozorcevs, CEO of Finsei.
