Choosing an Online Payments Model: Acquiring vs Aggregators

The payments market in Kazakhstan is shifting from traditional bank acquiring to aggregators and independent processors offering multiple payment methods, convenient APIs, and quick integration for online businesses. Aggregators are strengthening their position in e-commerce by supporting local wallets, installment plans, tenge payments, and multi-currency options, while traditional acquiring is often limited to cards and less flexible in terms of withdrawal options and pricing.

In Kazakhstan, payment aggregators are typically understood as technology services (ecosystem players such as Kaspi, Freedom, and Halyk) that handle integration with multiple payment methods. They provide merchants with online acquiring, wallets, installment plans, and sometimes e-money, eliminating the need to build their own payment infrastructure from scratch.

Such aggregators have become the standard entry point into online payments for SMEs and many marketplaces in Kazakhstan. However, specialized acquiring and processing companies are increasingly being chosen by merchants when businesses require more fine-grained process customization, direct control over the economy, and solutions tailored to their specific business model.

Why merchants choose processing companies?

Merchants prefer processors for their low fees, fast withdrawals, and automated dispute (chargeback) tools. Processors offer analytics, A/B testing, and fraud protection unavailable in basic acquiring.

Besides rates, service and risks are important: the acquirer oversees anti-fraud, 3-D Secure, routing, and dispute resolution, which is critical given the growing number of transactions and chargebacks. For marketplaces, financial institutions, and large online retailers, this means fewer operational losses, better reporting, and the ability to build a long-term financial model tailored to their processes.

Processing.kz has been operating in Kazakhstan since 2009 and specializes in online acquiring processes for banks and online businesses. The company provides a secure payment gateway, a ready-made payment page, modules for popular CMSs, mobile SDKs, and APIs for custom integration.

"Made for your business" is our key goal.

The processing.kz model allows us to build solutions for various segments: online stores, marketplaces, financial institutions, credit and microfinance services, subscriptions, and recurring payments. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach like aggregators, we can customize payment flows, payment methods, business logic, and reporting to suit your products and customer journey.