The Green Sheet Online Edition

October 12, 2026 • 26:10:01

Gain visibility into acquiring profitability

SRM and Torus launched the Acquirer Profitability Solution, a platform designed to help acquirers identify revenue leakage, reconcile settlements and gain greater visibility into merchant-level profitability. The joint offering combines SRM's payments advisory expertise with Torus' transaction-level payments analytics. It addresses growing complexity in card scheme fees, which the companies said can make it difficult for acquirers to determine whether costs are being accurately recovered from merchants.

Many acquirers still rely on aggregated reporting and manual reconciliation processes, according to SRM and Torus. The new solution automates analysis at the transaction level, allowing users to compare scheme fee invoices with merchant billing and identify instances of under- or over-recovery.

Track fees at the merchant level

The platform provides interchange and scheme fee assurance by calculating costs at the merchant level and comparing them with amounts recovered through merchant pricing. It also performs daily transaction-level reconciliation between card schemes and merchant settlement files. The companies said this can reduce manual work while giving acquirers greater visibility into discrepancies and strengthening financial controls.

Merchant profitability analytics provide daily views across individual merchants, portfolios and market segments. Acquirers can use the information to evaluate pricing, allocate costs and identify relationships or segments where margins may warrant closer attention.

"The economics of acquiring have fundamentally changed," said John Berns, managing partner at SRM Europe. "Growing scheme fee complexity means that traditional reconciliation processes are no longer sufficient."

Identify potential revenue leakage

SRM and Torus said early deployments have demonstrated opportunities to improve fee recovery. They added that one midsize acquirer using the technology increased annual scheme fee recovery by approximately $4.49 million, an amount representing about 10 percent of its total scheme fee costs.

The companies estimate manual reconciliation processes cost the acquiring industry more than $200 million annually. Torus provides payments profitability intelligence to banks, acquirers, banking-as-a-service providers and fintechs. Its platform, Torus said, analyzes more than 1.5 billion card transactions annually across 33 countries.

SRM has advised financial institutions and fintechs for more than 30 years, with services encompassing payments modernization, vendor sourcing, enterprise strategy, mergers and acquisitions integration, and technology deployment. For more information, please visit srmcorp.com and torusadvisors.com. End of Story

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