What Is a Payment Service Provider?
When a customer pays for something online, a lot happens in the background in a matter of seconds. A payment service provider — or PSP — is the company that makes all of that work.
Technically, a PSP sits between the merchant, the customer’s bank, and the card networks (like Visa or Mastercard). It handles authorisation requests, routes transactions, manages security checks, and ensures funds settle correctly. Without a PSP, a business would need to establish direct relationships with multiple banks and networks across every market it operates in — a process that is costly, slow, and complex.
Beyond the technical plumbing, a good PSP also provides fraud monitoring, reporting dashboards, dispute management, and the compliance infrastructure needed to operate across different regulatory environments. For businesses expanding into the EU and UK, this is particularly important given the requirements of PSD2 and the broader European payments regulatory framework.
Settlixx handles all of this — so merchants can focus on running their business rather than managing payment infrastructure.
Payment Methods
Card Payments — Visa & Mastercard
Cards remain the dominant payment method across Europe and the UK. Settlixx supports full Visa and Mastercard acceptance, including 3DS2 (Three Domain Secure) authentication — the current industry standard for verifying cardholders and reducing fraud liability.
3DS2 is a significant upgrade over its predecessor. It uses hundreds of data points to assess transaction risk in real time, allowing low-risk payments to pass through with no customer friction, while flagging suspicious transactions for additional verification. The result is fewer abandoned checkouts and stronger fraud protection simultaneously.
Settlixx also supports recurring billing, one-click payments for returning customers, and multi-currency processing — essential for any business with a cross-border customer base.
Apple Pay & Google Pay
Digital wallets have grown rapidly across Europe, particularly among mobile users. Apple Pay and Google Pay allow customers to pay using their device without entering card details manually — authentication happens via Face ID, fingerprint, or device PIN.
For merchants, wallet payments typically convert better than traditional card entry because the checkout flow is shorter and the experience feels native to the device. Settlixx integrates both wallets across web and mobile environments, with no separate contract or setup required — they work within the same payment infrastructure as card processing.
Open Banking
Open Banking is a newer but increasingly important payment method, particularly in the UK where its adoption has been among the highest in the world. Under PSD2, banks are required to open their infrastructure to licensed third parties, enabling direct account-to-account transfers without cards or intermediaries.
In practice, this means a customer can pay a merchant directly from their bank account — authenticated via their own banking app — with funds settling faster than a card payment and at a lower processing cost for the merchant.
Open Banking payments also carry a significantly lower chargeback risk compared to card transactions, since the customer authenticates directly with their bank. For merchants dealing with high transaction volumes, this can represent meaningful savings over time.
Settlixx supports Open Banking across major UK and EU markets, fully compliant with PSD2 requirements.
Operating in the EU & UK
Europe and the UK have some of the most demanding payments regulatory environments in the world. Compliance isn’t optional — it’s the foundation on which reliable payment processing is built. Settlixx is structured to operate within these frameworks, ensuring merchants benefit from compliant payment flows, GDPR-aligned data practices, and established acquiring relationships across key European markets.
From sterling to euros and beyond, Settlixx provides the infrastructure businesses need to process payments confidently, consistently, and at any scale.