From Payments Rails to Financial Infrastructure: Reimagining Merchant Acquiring
At the Bharat Fintech Summit 2026, Sameer challenged the way we think about merchant acquiring.
His core point: Payments are not the business anymore they are the gateway.
- UPI has solved acceptance.
- QR codes and soundboxes are everywhere.
- Zero MDR changed the game.
But the real opportunity lies beyond transactions.
Merchant acquiring is about owning the current account relationship
Payment data is real-time cash flow intelligence
Flow-based lending can replace static underwriting
Reconciliation, settlement visibility, and embedded credit are the next frontier
If you focus only on MDR or hardware, you will struggle.
If you monetize relationships and intelligence built on payment rails, you will scale.
Merchant acquiring is evolving from a transaction engine to financial infrastructure for MSMEs.
And that shift will define who wins in digital banking.
