Onboarding Friction for PSPs – Anyone Else Seeing This Spike?
Alright, so I'm curious if anyone else is experiencing a noticeable increase in friction when onboarding new Payment Service Providers (PSPs) lately? Not talking about the usual 'send your utility bill from 1998' stuff, but deeper operational hurdles. It feels like the goalposts are shifting constantly, especially when dealing with certain geographical regions or specific asset classes like crypto. What used to be a reasonably smooth process, albeit thorough, now often feels like trying to navigate a labyrinth designed by a committee that couldn't agree on which way is up.
We're finding due diligence cycles stretching out significantly, and the level of scrutiny on the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) is intense – which, fine, I get the regulatory environment, but it's the inconsistency across different PSPs that's the head-scratcher. One might clear us in a few weeks, another takes months asking for documents that seem borderline irrelevant to the service being offered. It's tying up resources unnecessarily and delaying rollout on new offerings. Are others finding their operational teams getting bogged down in KYB processes that feel disproportionate to the risk profile, or is it just the niche we're currently in?
It's like they're trying to achieve peak bureaucracy, isn't it? I'm half-expecting to be asked for a lock of hair and a sworn affidavit from my first-grade teacher next. The crypto asset class definitely adds an extra layer of 'fun' to the whole process.