That’s where the real difference lies.

Working across multiple mandates, markets, and Card Schemes gives a unique vantage point into where risks emerge and where meaningful impact can be made.

One of such example that recently stood out was on the online refund auth (Europe) mandate where we observed a high percentage of online refund auth transactions were not being processed accurately by issuers. The implications? Operational challenges and increased risk of non-compliance.

After a deep data analysis, it became clear the issue wasn’t with the processing but with issuer readiness at the scheme level. I developed a data-led strategy to surface the root cause and brought this directly to the schemes.

From there, advocacy took the lead.

By presenting issuer-level evidence and engaging in consistent, targeted follow-ups, the situation began to shift. Over the course of a few months, we saw a significant increase in online refund transactions being processed successfully, benefiting both us and our merchants

When choosing a payments partner, ask more than just “Can they process my payments?”

Ask:
• Will they represent my interests with the schemes?
• Can they provide data-led insights to reduce risk?
• Are they proactive in identifying and solving systemic problems?
• Do they operate like a true strategic partner?

That’s why I’m proud of checkout.com; We tick all the boxes.

The post Why Your Acquirer should be more than Just a Payment Processor appeared first on Oyedola Yemi-Olatunji.

“Where should our Payments Ops team sit?”

At face value, the default has often been Finance. After all, they need the data to reconcile accounts, monitor receivables, and manage financial reporting. But in practice, that structure underestimates the true scope and impact of a well-structured Payments Operations function.

Payments Ops isn’t just about financial inputs; It’s about owning the transaction journey end-to-end. This team understands how money flows through your product, where revenue gets lost, how customer pain points arise, and what interventions can prevent issues before they escalate.

They build dispute processes, close gaps with partners, engage engineering on delayed transactions, train customer experience teams on payment nuances, interpret scheme mandates, and flag service fee inefficiencies.

And they do this with one goal in mind: to protect and grow the business, not just keep books balanced.

While Finance rightly focuses on P&L, tax, compliance, and accounting standards, Payments Ops brings critical insight to how your product behaves in the real world—from API timeouts to conversion drops to exception flags and settlement mismatches.

This is why the emergence of Chief Payments Officers (CPaYO) is no coincidence. Forward-looking companies – fintech or not – are recognising that payments is not a sub-function. It is a strategic function that demands visibility, ownership, and leadership.

What Makes a Chief Payments Officer?

Someone who understands customers and compliance. Someone who knows how financial data is structured, but also how product flows are designed. Someone technical enough to ask the right questions in an engineering sync, and commercial enough to support your go-to-market thinking.

In short, a problem solver who sees payments not just as plumbing, but as a driver of both trust and revenue.

If your Payments Ops team is still boxed under Finance today, you may be limiting its impact. It’s time to rethink the structure.

Where does your Payments Ops team sit today, and how is that working for you? I’d love to hear your take — share your setup or challenges in the comments.

Over the next few posts, I’ll be unpacking what strong Payments Operations actually looks like in practice, how it supports scale, drives revenue, and protects the business from the inside out.

If you’re building in fintech or leading operations, this will help you reframe what’s possible.

Follow to stay in the loop.

#PaymentsOps #PaymentOperations #FintechLeadership #StrategyExecution #CPaYO #OperationalExcellence #FintechGrowth

The post Should Payments Operations Sit Under Finance, or Stand on Its Own? appeared first on Oyedola Yemi-Olatunji.