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Leaders In Payments
Leaders In Payments
Viktoria Soltesz, Founder & CEO of PSP Angels | Episode 466
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Ever launched a beautiful product only to watch payments derail the experience? We sat with Viktoria Soltesz - founder of PSP Angels and the Soltesz Institute - to map the hidden decisions that make or break money movement. From onboarding demands and documentation to routing choices and settlement timelines, Viktoria shows how banking and payment flows now shape product, compliance, data, and brand trust. The takeaway is bold and practical: treat payments as strategy, not plumbing.
We dig into messy, real-world stories: a global group juggling multiple entities, providers, and file formats; a luxury e-commerce brand whose purple checkout clashed with a green identity and crushed conversions; and a marketplace shut down over a single high-risk SKU. Viktoria explains why “cheapest fees” can cost the most when integration pain, risk appetite, and provider incentives are ignored. She also exposes conflicts in referral-driven deals and makes the case for an ethical, merchant-first approach that starts with a comprehensive payments health check.
The conversation builds toward a clear solution: appoint a Chief Payments Officer. This role owns the end-to-end flow, negotiates with a holistic lens, and adapts strategy to each market - whether that means leveraging UPI in India, adopting open banking in the US, or planning redundancies that protect authorization rates and cash flow. We also scan the horizon: instant payments in the EU, QR adoption beyond Asia, and the rise of agentic commerce where AI discovers, orders, and pays. With new rails come new risks - refunds, disputes, and fraud models must be redesigned for machine-initiated purchases.
If you care about lower fees, fewer shutoffs, stronger UX, and faster global expansion, this is your playbook. Learn more about PSP Angels here and The Soltesz Institute here.
Viktoria has also written two books both available on Amazon and here.
Moving Money How Banks Think
The CPayO - The Chief Payment Officer The Role Which Doesn't Exist (But Should!)
Welcome And Guest Intro
SPEAKER_01Welcome to the Leaders in Payments Podcast, where we talk to sea level leaders from across the payments landscape. We'll be discussing the products and services that impact the payment space today, as well as trends and predictions for the future of payments. We will also hear stories from our guests about their journeys to the top.
Viktoria’s Path From Tax To Payments
SPEAKER_00Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Leaders in Payments Podcast. I'm your host, Greg Myers, and today's special guest is Victoria Soltez, the founder of PSP Angels and the Soltez Institute. So, Victoria, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you so much, Greg, to invite me. I'm a big fan of the show, so I was really looking forward to this conversation today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, me too. So before we dive into your career in the company, can you give us a quick snapshot of your personal background, maybe where you grew up, where you call home today, a few things like that?
SPEAKER_02Yes, actually it's a long story, you know, because no one actually wanted to end up in payment. Everybody is just ending up working in payment. So it was the same situation with me as well. I started my career in uh Cyprus, Europe, back at the day when Cyprus just joined the EU. And I was a tax consultant. So I was helping international companies set up Cyprus Incorporation and of course take advantage of the better taxes of the island as well. But when my clients came to me, Victoria, what's happening with the bank? I don't understand. The bank is asking a lot of questions. That's when I realized that, okay, there is something what the accountant should know, but we just don't know. And I'm just in a blur as my clients. So that's when I shifted my focus over discovering more about how payments work, how banks think, how money moves internationally. Because I was a suffering merchant myself, and that shifted me over to do the consultancy. And last year I opened an institute as well, which is teaching about payments and banking basics and concepts.
Why Payments Strategy Matters
SPEAKER_00Okay. So can you walk us through maybe a little more of your professional journey? And maybe, I mean, you talked about kind of why you started it, but what was really the reason that you started the consulting and moved into this space?
Real-World Use Cases And Pitfalls
SPEAKER_02Yes, I think that there are a huge burden today on finance professionals to give answers on a lot of things which is outside of their scope. So let's say that um you are a chief financial officer and the management comes to you for answers, which bank account to open, how to optimize the banking and payment fees. Shall we introduce new fintech innovations to the company, like open banking or the SEPA instant payment? And poor chief financial officer is there without having any replies. Because, first of all, there is no trustworthy information out there. Second of all, there are no standards and certificates and commonly accepted practices. So as I see today, everybody is winging it. Whatever works for me, I'm recommending this to my friend and professional circle. Maybe it works for you too. But when it comes to money and payment, it should not be like this. And I think more and more today, we see that banks and payment providers are making decisions over every area of the operation. They can make or break a business. They affect how the product is being developed, the data security, the compliance, the technology, obviously finance parts. So there are so many elements which is touched by the payment and banking processes, how the money is flowing through the organization. But we just don't talk about it. And many times I have seen that it turns into firefighting just because, oh, the bank closed the account, oh, I can't send money to China, oh, I cannot accept money from my customers, oh, Visa is charging me too much. So everything becomes a problem to solve, but no one is really planning for it. So what I'm advocating for is that just how you have a marketing plan or a sales plan or a budget, why don't you also plan and strategize for your payment and banking processes? Those days are long gone when you have an idea, you create an MVP out of that, and then try to put it on the market and just push it through. And at one point, when we are running, we will find a bank or a payment provider to work with. I say that today you have to understand what your payment and banking providers allow you to do. What documents, processes do they want to see from you? What can you do, what you cannot do? And once you have a full understanding, that's when you need to plan the operation around those flows, not the other way around. So, in this way, you can spare a lot of headache, a lot of costs, a lot of bottlenecks, a lot of operational hiccups. So the base understanding is that we need to see payments and banking through a different lens. We need to understand that it's no longer just the finance function, and according to that, understand what's going on in the market and how does it affect our operation because everything is changing all the time on top of this.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So maybe tell our audience what would be a typical use case. Maybe a, you know, a client comes to you. What is it that you're doing for that client?
SPEAKER_02Right. So let's say that you have a huge international group. You've got one company in Singapore, one company in Dubai, one company in Delaware, and one company in France. All of these individual entities have their own local bank accounts, local payment providers, sometimes more than one, and they are charging you different fees, they are working under different terms and conditions, they are paying you in different timelines, their integration is totally different. One is sending a report in a PDF, the other one is sending in a CSV file, you need to negotiate them in a different way. So it is very, very, very complex. So our job is to put things in a perspective. Every time the money moves, it triggers risk and triggers cost. And just because your tax advisor gives you a good idea that, hey, go to Panama and then you don't pay taxes, it's not always the best advice. Because, yes, you might be legal, you might be allowed to deal with certain transactions, incorporate certain companies, but it doesn't mean that you will find a bank or a payment provider and any financial institution who wants to work with you under these conditions. And if they do, there might be a different price or worse terms and conditions that you imagine. So our job is to actually strategize for everything. Where the money comes from, how much, how often, what currency, how does it flow through the organization, what are the trigger points? Why are you keeping so much money in one bank account instead of diversifying? Why don't you go back and renegotiate those fees? Is it really the best route? Or if we are cutting short with a different financial product, it's going to be better. Why don't you send crypto here? Why don't you use open banking there? How do you plan for the timelines? So it has a lot of different elements on that, and obviously it optimize the decisions. And I've got quite good case studies as well. For example, we had a client who was in a luxury industry. It was a luxury e-commerce shop, beautiful face creams, very carefully designed website. And as you do, you build a website, you put on the creams, you start the marketing, you spend a lot of money on the marketing, and then you find a payment provider. And turned out that they could find a payment provider, but it was such a rudimental design, like their corporate colors were green and this payment provider was purple, that it just killed the whole effort that they put in the user journey. But again, if you don't know, you don't know. So sometimes it's cheaper and easier to fix your own website and fix your own conditions than go out and try to find a payment provider who is then now integrating with you under the right terms and conditions and fees as your customer, friendly colors and the user experience or your plan. For example, we had another client who was a huge e-commerce company, and they were selling everything from clothes to home, these home equipments, I don't know, kitchen utensils and all that. And they introduced one new product, which was a fungal nail cream, which is not an e-commerce product. It was considered as a high-risk pharmaceutical kind of product. The payment provider shut down their website. Obviously, they didn't know out of the 10,000 product that which was the one which triggered this. So we came and went through all of those product catalogues, just trying to identify that what happened and what could go wrong. So this is something which can be easily avoided if you have someone on your team who understands how banks think and how payment moves and what could trigger some kind of problems in your operation later. So those are just uh very basic examples of what are we dealing with.
Reducing Risk, Stress, And Fees
SPEAKER_00Okay. What do you think is the biggest challenge that you're solving for your customers right now?
SPEAKER_02The stress, the time, the energy, the stress, the oh my God, I didn't think that it could happen, or the confusion, obviously high fees. But I would really say it's it's really how to avoid risks, what could have been easily avoided with a little bit of planning. What I see today that departments don't really work together when it comes to payment and banking flows. The tech is doing what the tech does. Integrate and data security and whatnot. Finance does what finance do. Calculate the fees, put it in the budget, maybe negotiate better fees. Legal does what legal do. You can sell this, you cannot sell that. But somehow there is no overall senior figure who is following the payment flow from the beginning to the very end and advise on every single step in terms of risk, in terms of fees and timelines and delays. So that's what we are advocating for, that you do need to see the whole operation, not only from a product perspective or a marketing perspective, but definitely how can you move funds, which is essentially the bloodline of your business. And I usually say that yes, payment and banking is a cash flow, is the bloodline of the of your business, but the heart, which is managing everything, should be your strategy. Do you have a heart in your business? Do you have a payment and banking strategy? Because if not, maybe it's already too late. But definitely try to put things in perspective because it saves so much headache for you later.
Ethics And Conflicts In The Ecosystem
SPEAKER_00Okay. What would you say differentiates you and your team from other consultants out there? What makes you different and unique?
SPEAKER_02I notice that unfortunately, this industry is still heavily reliant on introducers. I know someone who can help. That person or that company is paying me for referral fees or introductory fees. Therefore, I'm bringing the client to them. But there is no focus on the merchant itself. No one is helping the merchant unless the merchant is hiring someone who is working for them. There are not that many consultant companies who are doing an overall health check and putting everything in perspective and not getting kickback from a fintech company by bringing that client and obviously earning commission. So we are also advocating for an ethical and transparent industry. There is nothing wrong with introducers, but they shouldn't say that I'm helping you out of my good heart and I'm finding you the best solution. I'm not finding you the best. I'm finding the best solution for myself. Whoever pays me the most amount of commission is going to take the client. Easy as that. So there's an inherent conflict of interest. And I just want to shed light on how this industry works, how there is also an inception of a payment provider, of a payment provider. You know, there is an acquirer who is selling it to a gateway, and the gateway sells it to an ISO who is selling it to a reseller. So people should be more educated about how the industry works so they can make better decisions, so they can take less risk and obviously negotiate the fees which are best for them, not necessarily just for the introducer, just for the reseller, just for the ISOs, but actually someone who is fighting for their benefit, not just trying to place them with the highest paying commission partner.
Where Demand And Growth Are Heading
SPEAKER_00Okay. Let's talk about the future a little bit. So where do you see the biggest growth opportunity for what you do?
The Chief Payments Officer Case
SPEAKER_02I think it's tremendous because it seems like it doesn't matter what size of your business is, it doesn't matter where are you in the world, it doesn't matter what activity you do. At one point, you will have a problem with your payments and banking. And if you are dealing with international payment, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's not once a lifetime, but every single week there is something pops up. So I think that there is more and more demand of understanding why these things happen and then really follow up that what are the latest fintech innovations. Because fintech is changing with the speed of life. Now we are talking about agentic AI, we are talking about embedded payments, as I said, the instant payments, which just got really strictly regulated in the EU just last year. So there are a lot of changes, which is good luck for your accountant or a person who is managing your payments and banking currently in your company to keep up to date with all those changes. And on top of that, your company is changing. You are not that company who you were when you were a startup and walked down to your local credit institution and opened an account and accepted the fees. You need to know how this industry works and how to make the most out of it for your operation, for your own benefit. And that's where I see the future is going because I think merchants, online businesses, even small little kiosks on the street, they're sick and tired of the problems of the banking, and seems like no one has the answer for that. I think there is more and more demand to understand why the banking is asking for your passport copy, why the bank is not sending money to Russia, why you cannot just exchange this currency to that currency. And there has to be a better understanding around these problems.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And throughout this whole conversation, really the transparency, the education, obviously you're very passionate about those. But before we start a recording, we talked about another concept that I want to make sure we talk about is that chief payments officer concept. So I'd love to hear your thoughts about that because I love the idea. So can you kind of talk about what your thoughts are there?
Big Trends: Open Banking, QR, P2P
SPEAKER_02Sure thing. I actually wrote a book about it. It came out last September. I argue that in your organization, it is time now to appoint a chief payment officer, which is a different role than your financial officer, or it's a different role than a product person. This person understands what's going on on the market, what's the latest on the fintech, understands how the whole industry works so they can negotiate better terms and conditions and fees for your business. They have the authority to say, no, I know that they are charging half a percent more, but it's going to be a nightmare to integrate. Someone who is seeing everything from a holistic perspective and understand that if you change a little bit of a payment or banking process here, it's going to make a major problem there. So see things in systems, can think outside of the local payment providers, can take the business globally, understanding that if you're accepting card payments in the US, good, but if you're going to India, no one's going to pay you with cards. There, there is a UPI system, which is a local-specific payment method, which gets you to success. So I argue that there has to be a separate role, which is senior enough to oversee and make decisions on all areas of the operation, but also independent enough to sit in the intersection of multiple different departments. So that's the concept of the chief payment officer that I argue that every business basically needs, regardless of the size, regardless of the activity, because everybody is going to have, if you haven't had, you will have problems with payments and banking at one point in your life for sure.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Yeah, I love that concept. I think it's a it's a great thing for, if nothing else, gets companies to start thinking that way, right? So I think that's that's great. You know, you're talking to people all every single day about payments, and I'm sure about the latest trends. So, what, in your opinion, are the biggest trends that are reshaping our industry?
Agentic Commerce: Promise And Risk
SPEAKER_02FinTech is moving with a speed of light. Like all these innovations are absolutely amazing, but it's very, very hard to follow as well, right? I mean, how can I, as a small, medium-sized enterprise in Europe, take advantage of the stable coin law which has passed the Genius Act in the US a couple of months ago? So it can be really overwhelming and really confusing. But if you have a good eye to for it and if you're informed enough, there are myriads of different opportunities today to collect money from your clients, to send money internationally. There are many ways to optimize your fees and your risk. You just need to know where what to touch. So in the US, the latest big thing, I think it was the open banking, which is kind of bypassing the cards. I can directly send money from my bank account to your bank account, not involving any kind of card schemes, which are obviously cheaper and of course safer. But then what are we going to do with the chargeback, right? It's good for the merchant because once the money is with me, it's with me. You are no longer can have, I mean, obviously you can dispute it, but it's a much more difficult process through bank to bank. But that was something that I have seen that it was really shaking the whole e-commerce world. Or there are, for example, the QR codes, which are very, very popular in Asia. You're no longer paying by typing in the bank number or by waving your card. You are actually scanning a QR code and through the application, all the identification, the fraud, everything is taken care of at the back end. So it gives you an amazing customer experience. So that's also something which is very popular in Asia, but somehow is just creeping in now to the US and Europe. Or even the peer-to-peer payments. A couple of years ago, we didn't have a Venmo, right? And today everybody's just like Vemoing, everything's super easy and super fast. So there are a lot of innovations, but as I said, everything comes with a caveat because no one can have a free lunch, right? You you need to understand what are the benefits, how to take advantage, but what are the risks? And I think this is very important that we are talking about the benefits, yes. And of course, all the information is out there, educating users that why to pick us and why is it good, but we do need to talk about the risks and the issues and uh and the backslashes as well when we are talking about different payment methods. So that's what I think that we don't have enough red flags and talks about the risks and the problems with these new fintech innovations.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And you mentioned this earlier, and it's a huge trend. And I'm curious your opinion, kind of where you think we are in this process, the whole agentic commerce. So machines buying on behalf of people, we know that's coming. In some ways, it's here, but I think in a lot of ways, all the infrastructure and everything's not quite in place. So just curious, what are your thoughts on agentic commerce?
Career Advice And Mindset
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm having an inquiry on this at least five every week. Like people are just buzzing about it and they want to know everything. Now, if I knew that, wouldn't be here talking to you. I would be already cashing out on my own island, drinking a cocktail and enjoying life. So obviously I can't tell what is the future. But I can say that things are here again, moving very, very fast. And merchants need to understand how to optimize for their search engines to be able to find customers through these generative AI models, which are used more and more, but also start seriously thinking of the payment processes, because it's no longer, hey, find me a pair of red shoes, but find me a pair of red shoes, GGPT, and pay for it with my card. So here we really need to understand that how does that payment process take place? Who is responsible? Up to what point, in case there is a dispute, there is a problem, do you have the system in place which is then eliminating all these headaches? Well, how about the fraud? How about all of those hallucinations? When the AI is buying you the blue pair of shoes instead of the red one. So it is a very, very complex thing. It's very scary. So I know that my clients are really baffled of, okay, how are we going to implement this? Who do we trust? Up to what level certainty we give automation a green light. So it is a very complex thing, but you need to start paying attention to it yesterday. Because if you don't do that, it can be easily getting out of hand very quickly, very fast without you being in it. And that's a problem if you're missing out, unfortunately. There is a there's a huge opportunity that you can lose your whole business overnight if you if you're not up to date with all these trends.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Well, a couple of final questions before we wrap up. So if you could go back and give yourself advice at the start of your career, what would that be?
Urgent Need For Independent Education
SPEAKER_02No one knows. Everybody is winging it, and there is no ultimate truth. You need to see what are the major trends, what's happening in the world, but you need to adopt to your own situation, what is the best for you. And this is what I see with my merchants as well. Which is the best payment provider? Well, depends for who and for what traffic. What is the best way to, you know, negotiate terms? Well, it depends who is on this other side of the phone. So there are a lot of what ifs, and everybody is just trying to figure things out. And even today, when everything is so fast and and and things are evolving really, really fast. Don't worry. As long as you're doing something and as long as you're asking the questions, you're already doing more than 90% of your peers. So that would be a good advice. Don't worry, do it, figure it out, get obviously experts in place, but don't worry because there is no ultimate truth which is going to guide you. You will always need to adopt and figure out during the process.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Yeah, I think that's that's great advice. So, final question: what's the one thing that payment listeners or just listeners in general today, what do you think they should be thinking about right now?
Closing And How To Connect
SPEAKER_02Start educating yourself. I'm saying that by knowing that there is no ultimate payment and banking school or institute which is global and setting up the standards. There are a lot of contradicting information out there because the fintech industry is based on sales. So all the education is coming from a fintech company or a bank, whatever bank's education, whatever card schemes, academy. So learn, educate yourself, but take it with a pinch of salt and see who is benefiting at the end of those educational materials which are shared with you. Because unfortunately, still today there is no commonly, independently accepted standards. I mean, obviously, that's what I'm fighting for, and that's what we do with the with the Schwarte Institute. But we are just we are we are, I think, I think one of the few, if not the only ones who are doing that. But definitely education has to take place as soon as possible. If you are dealing with payments and banking, you can't start early enough because there are so many things that you need to see behind the curtain to understand certain decisions which will affect your operation eventually. So education, education, and education.
SPEAKER_00Okay. All right. Well, I think that's a great way to wrap up the show. So, Victoria, thank you so much for being on the show today. I know your time is very valuable, so I really appreciate you being here.
SPEAKER_02Thank you so much. And again, I really appreciate that you invited me and gave me forum to talk about these things. It's very easy to find me. Whoever would like to continue the conversation, please just reach out to me. I love to talk about that subject, as you can tell me now. And yeah, let's continue the conversation and build an ethical and transparent industry for everyone's benefit.
SPEAKER_00I love it. I love it. And to all your listeners out there, I thank you for your time as well. And until the next story.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in Payments Podcast. Make sure you visit our website at leadersinpayments.com, where you can subscribe to the show and where you'll find our show notes. If you enjoyed listening, please share on your social channels as well.