Onboarding Friction for Merchant Accounts – Anyone Else Seeing Red Flags?

Alright folks, long-time lurker, first-time poster here. We've been shopping around for a new PSP for our growing e-commerce ops, particularly eyeing some more robust international payment rails. The core product is solid, margins are decent, but the current acquiring setup is just not scaling well with the volume and geographic spread we're hitting. What's been driving me absolutely barmy lately is the sheer amount of friction in the onboarding process for several of the tier-one PSPs we've approached.

It feels like a compliance hurdle race designed by someone who's never actually run a business. KYC for us is one thing, but the in-depth KYB requirements for a mid-sized merchant with a well-established track record are becoming absurd. We're talking about reams of documentation, requests for bank statements going back years, proof of address for multiple directors, even details on our website hosting provider's compliance certificates! I get the need for due diligence, especially with AML/CFT, but there's a point where it transitions from prudent to utterly inefficient. Are we alone in this? Is this the new normal for securing a decent merchant account, or are we just picking the wrong partners? Trying to gauge if it's our setup triggering some internal alarm bells for them, or if the industry has collectively decided that making it as painful as possible is the new norm for risk mitigation.