gateway

The traditional high-risk merchant account referral model has a glass ceiling. As an agent or ISO, you can introduce high-quality merchants to processors all day, but you remain at the mercy of the “upstream” provider. You cannot systematically control routing, partner performance, or the cascading logic that determines your approval rates. To break this cycle, the most strategic move for scaling an ISO business in 2026 is to move toward owning your payment stack for ISOs. By choosing to buy a Canadian MSB (Money Services Business) or other licensed entity (EMI/PSP) and pairing it with a proprietary gateway, you transition from a simple middleman to a full-scale platform owner. This guide serves as your ISO to PayFac transition guide, showing you exactly how to reclaim your margins and operational independence.