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Viktoria Soltesz interviewed by the Leaders in Payments by Greg Myers

  • 9 hours ago
  • 2 min read

The Leaders In Payments Podcast , hosted by Greg Myers interviews leaders in payments about industry trends, successful strategies, products, services, and what the future holds for the payments industry as well as about their journey. The platform covers the entire industry from merchant acquiring, payment processing, ISOs, payfacs, fraud, security, issuing, b2b, fintech, to start-ups, and more.



The Importance of The Payment and Banking Strategy


Payment and banking today impact customer experience, risk management, technology, product development, data security, compliance, finance, and more. Viktoria believes that it should be considered a standalone function, an essential element of the business strategy, not just a part of finance. Her unique framework (https://www.pspangels.com/solteszframework) has successfully helped over 1000 companies and today, as she is a pioneer who set the standards and best practises for the payment and banking industry.


Strategic Execution

The takeaway is bold and practical: treat payments as strategy, not plumbing. We dig into messy, real-world stories: a global group juggling multiple entities, providers, and file formats; a luxury e-commerce brand whose purple checkout clashed with a green identity and crushed conversions; and a marketplace shut down over a single high-risk SKU.

Viktoria explains why “cheapest fees” can cost the most when integration pain, risk appetite, and provider incentives are ignored. She also exposes conflicts in referral-driven deals and makes the case for an ethical, merchant-first approach that starts with a comprehensive payments health check.


The CPayO

The conversation builds toward a clear solution: appoint a Chief Payments Officer. Unfortunately, the ones who manage payment and banking tasks are not adequately trained to do so. Key areas, such as how payments and banking affect technology, UX, compliance, and other essential aspects in a business, are absent from accounting, economics courses, and MBAs. 

The CPayO role owns the end-to-end flow, negotiates with a holistic lens, and adapts strategy to each market - whether that means leveraging UPI in India, adopting open banking in the US, or planning redundancies that protect authorization rates and cash flow.

We also scan the horizon: instant payments in the EU, QR adoption beyond Asia, and the rise of agentic commerce where AI discovers, orders, and pays. With new rails come new risks - refunds, disputes, and fraud models must be redesigned for machine-initiated purchases. If you care about lower fees, fewer shutoffs, stronger UX, and faster global expansion, this is your playbook.




 
 
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