Strategy & market entry

Overview

We combine deep knowledge of the payments landscape (card schemes and network tokens, instant and account-to-account rails, pay-by-bank and wallets such as Wero, embedded finance, and the merchant and issuing value chains around them) with hands-on experience of what it takes to launch, license and scale a payments business.

That keeps strategy work grounded in what a client can realistically deliver rather than what looks good in a slide deck.

Where geography, target segment or product roadmap is still an open question, our consultants run structured market sizing and competitive benchmarking, stress-test the business model against realistic volume and margin assumptions, and work alongside management to sequence the roadmap from pilot market through to regional scale-up.

What we do

• Markets, corridors & models

  Evaluating new markets, corridors and business models before committing to one.

• Market sizing & benchmarking

  Structured market sizing and competitive benchmarking where the answer is still open.

• Business-model stress test

  Testing the model against realistic volume and margin assumptions.

• Roadmap sequencing

  Sequencing the roadmap from pilot market through to regional scale-up, alongside management.

What is shifting

Most strategy questions we see now sit where several changes overlap:

• Instant and account-to-account rails. Instant payments are becoming the default in Europe, and pay-by-bank and wallets are competing with cards at checkout.
• Card economics. Interchange, scheme and processing fees, and network tokenisation, change who earns what in a card value chain.
• Regulation. PSD3/PSR, open banking and the Instant Payments Regulation reshape licensing, liability and product scope. See PSD2/PSD3 & regulatory advisory.
• Embedded finance. Platforms and software vendors are taking payments in-house, or partnering for them.

How the work runs

• Frame. Agree the decision, the constraints and what a good answer looks like.
• Size and benchmark. Structured market sizing and comparison with markets and competitors we know first-hand.
• Stress-test. Shortlisted models tested against realistic volume and margin assumptions, with the numbers built out in a business case.
• Sequence. A roadmap from pilot market to regional scale-up, worked through with management.

Grounded in delivery

We have hands-on experience of what it takes to launch, license and scale a payments business, which keeps strategy work grounded in what a client can realistically deliver, not in what looks good in a slide deck.

Evaluating cross-border corridors? Pair corridor strategy with our correspondent banking advisory. Ready to choose a platform? See vendor & processor RFP selection.