PSE Consulting has over 25 years’ experience of delivering advisory projects in the payments business. These include private equity M&A due diligence, merchant supplier selection, acquirer cost optimisation programmes, processor product definition and go-to-market planning. In delivering these assignments we have developed a wide range of tailored methodologies which are used to deliver high value advice rapidly.
PSE has been delivering insight driven strategic advisory assignments to senior stakeholders in the payments business for over 25 years. This strategic analysis covers events such as organic/inorganic growth, new product releases, portfolio management, and international market expansion. We have a robust customer and market focussed methodology that ensures our clients strategies are aligned with the latest market developments.
PSE has worked on many of the transactions in the European market from multi-billion Euro value IPOs to smaller start-up funding rounds. PSE provides market and commercial insights to complement legal and accounting due diligence. PSE has worked with many of the major private equity firms and strategic investors in carrying out due diligence or identifying potential M&A targets.
PSE has been in the forefront of innovation in the European payments market for over two decades. We are immersed in the latest developments across the payments value chain in the European market. We bring this experience to bear on all our assignments, particularly where clients are looking to deliver new and innovative products or business models. This analysis of emerging innovation is informed by our experience of the success and failures of similar models in the past.
PSE has developed a Proposition Led Methodology which seeks to ensure that our clients’ new product offers meet customer and market requirements. This methodology is built upon our detailed understanding of customer requirements whether these are consumers, corporates, or merchants, and the ways in which these users make buying decisions.
PSE has helped to develop operating models for a wide range of European payments players. These models have sought to help transform organisations post-integration/divestment, to reflect changing customer requirements, or an adjustment in product/market focus. Our analysis and recommendations cover all aspects of an organisation’s structure across people, process and technology as well as highlighting new KPIs and performance targets.
We have worked extensively to help our clients optimise the cost structure of their portfolios in areas such as pricing, interchange management, and cost to serve. We have worked with our customers to to identify and address operational opportunities such as exception management, platform consolidation/migration and customer support. PSE has developed a wide range of benchmarks from across the European payments market which support these analyses.
Over the past two decades PSE has run a large number of supplier selection processes for merchants, acquirers, issuers and gateways to select suppliers which range from software solutions for chargebacks to transaction acquirers. We have a rigorous, scrupulously objective, approach to supplier vetting and RFP management based on our extensive understanding of the market’s cost structures, and player reputations.
PSE has carried out a large number of primary research projects within the B2B and B2C environment talking to consumers, merchants, acquirers, issuers, and gateways across the European market. PSE regularly carries out mystery shopper exercises in a range of product segments to profile and evaluate the end customer experience, and pricing levels.
PSE provides a range of tailored market updates to its clients on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis. These updates are focused on areas of greatest interest such as M&A regulation, processing, innovation and scheme developments. In addition to providing curated analysis of market events PSE provides additional insights on the direct impact of these events on our clients’ businesses and highlights possible responses.
For a large number of our assignments we carry out extensive financial modelling, based on our extensive insights into the detailed cost structures, pricing and market volumes in the European payments market. Our modelling team has over 30 years experience of the economics of the European payments market, and the cost and revenue structures of all the major business models from issuing to acquiring, gateways and software sales.
PSE constantly updates its core payments market model and eCommerce analysis to ensure it reflects the latest developments in the European payments environment. Our database covers 30+ countries, all major payment types (cards and non-cards), key market shares, and 5 year market projections. These assets are used by PSE in a great many of our assignments, and are also used by a number of major clients.
