Payments consolidation is reshaping the industry as processors, gateways, fintechs, and software companies race to own more of the stack, more of the data, and more of the customer relationship.

Kitty relaunches Cents Chat with Jason, Steve, and Chris to explain the new format, why payments are no longer background plumbing, and how ISVs, PayFacs, marketplaces, and fintech teams should think about real operational pain points.

Embedded payments are not just a checkout feature for software platforms. They are a business model decision that reshapes revenue, risk, customer experience, compliance, and operational responsibility.

Becoming a PayFac can unlock payments revenue, tighter customer relationships, and more control, but the model also brings underwriting, risk monitoring, disputes, reserves, sponsor oversight, support complexity, and operational accountability.

Marketplace payments are not just checkout. They are trust infrastructure involving seller onboarding, funds flow, payouts, refunds, chargebacks, ledgering, compliance, and customer confidence.

Payments revenue share can look simple in a term sheet, but the real deal lives in definitions, deductions, support expectations, risk obligations, reporting, data rights, portability, and contract details.

Payments are not one integration or one vendor. They are a stack of product experience, gateways, processors, acquirers, underwriting, risk, fraud controls, ledgering, reconciliation, disputes, compliance, reporting, payouts, support, and ownership.