Driving Operational Excellence in Payments: On Focus Interview with Stefan Zisov, COO, CatalystPay

In our latest episode of On Focus series, we meet you with Stefan Zisov, COO of CatalystPay. Stefan's extensive experience in risk management and compliance has contributed to the success of CatalystPay. He shares his motivations for joining the company, its unique entrepreneurial spirit, and the benefits it offers to small and medium-sized enterprises. Stefan highlights CatalystPay's key differentiators, including their proactive "Can Do" approach, exceptional customer support, and strong network of partners. Stefan also teases upcoming features, partnerships, and developments that will further strengthen CatalystPay's value proposition for merchants. Read on to gain deeper insights into CatalystPay's mission and the vision behind their success in shaping the future of digital payments.

1) Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your role as the COO of CatalystPay?

I am Stefan Zisov and I am one of the founders and COO of CatalystPay. I have graduated with a master degree in Law, but I have jumped into a totally different career path within the payments industry and stayed in it for a good 15 years already. Prior to joining CatalystPay, I have worked in some senior risk management and compliance roles for both established and entrepreneurial organisations in the payments industry. My experience in risk management and compliance has shaped me as a professional and given me a broad understanding of the various aspects of the business, but being a business founder has given me the 360-degrees perspective. My partner Kevin once defined me as a Swiss-army knife for all things payments, which I still find funny, but when I think of it now it’s true. 

Now my role as a COO of CatalystPay is really to connect the dots in the company and make sure my colleagues are working in a friendly and productive environment, which will eventually reflect into the success and the financial results of the company. It’s my responsibility to drive the business forward and keep the team aligned with the company’s goals and senior management’s expectations. 

2) What motivated you to join CatalystPay, and what do you find most exciting about the company's mission?

I am entrepreneurial by nature, so jumping head-first into new projects like CatalystPay isn’t new to me, I had a couple of similar adventures prior to joining CatalystPay. My motivation to join CatalystPay came from the challenge to put my work experience, my knowledge and my professional network to work and build a successful business from scratch. I have always been passionate about my work and the financial services sector in general, but now with CatalystPay I had a chance to really turn my work into my own business and leave some sort of legacy. 

CatalystPay was started during the Covid19 pandemic and we were forced to create a company that embraces the remote working environment and culture. As a result CatalytsPay is a group of great people geo-located in different areas in the world, with different cultures and backgrounds. The cool part is that the same applies for our clients too. This company culture and diversity really resonates into my own personality and is perhaps the thing that I like the most about CatalystPay.  

3) Could you provide an overview of CatalystPay's services and how they benefit merchants?

CatalystPay has two main business lines:

The company acts as a payment gateway technology provider for SMEs that seek to receive card payments online. Catalystpay provides a PCI Level 1 compliant technology integrated with various Acquiring service providers (principal members of card schemes (VISA, MC, etc.)) and registered with both VISA and MasterCard;

On the other hand we are registered as an independent sales organization (ISO) for 20+ authorised financial institutions (PIs, EMIs) in the UK and EU. As an ISO Catalystpay Limited is in the business of identifying and referring clients to those financial institutions and in return receiving a commission in the form of % of the revenue that the financial institutions make from each referred client. 

These two business divisions form a very strong value proposition that CatalystPay offers to digitally-native small or medium-sized enterprises that seek to get paid online and enables them to streamline their business operations and reduce costs by utilising its flexible pricing terms.

4) In the rapidly evolving digital payment landscape, what sets CatalystPay apart from its competitors?

There are three key differentiators that I can think of right away:

First is surely the “Can Do” approach which I believe is the key to success for our company and what sets us apart from competitors. There’s no doubt that in the financial services sector the balance between business development and compliance is key. This is also evident from the recent developments in the industry with Bank of Lithuania revoking the licenses of Railsr and some other providers. At CatalystPay we have an ambitious but realistic vision of what they want to achieve and understand that growth shouldn’t come at all cost, we are focused on healthy growth and we like it this way. To be successful in such a competitive and highly regulated market, you really need to show initiative, proactiveness and even resiliance. This is why we cultivate the “Can Do” approach amongst all the levels of the organisation. 

Second is the strong customer support function, we offer super-responsive and reliable support channels, including live chat, email, or phone, to address customer inquiries, issues, and complaints promptly.

Last but not least is the extensive network of partners and the supported technical integrations. This gives us quite good coverage as well as some competitive edge when it comes to commercials.

 

5) How does CatalystPay ensure the security and privacy of merchants' transactions and data?

On a technology side, CatalystPay offers a white-label technology provided by one of the global industry leaders ACI Worldwide. ACI is registered as PCI DSS Level 1 compliant Third-Party Processor (TPP) with card schemes (VISA and MasterCard), which is the highest standard of security in the card payment industry. The offered payment gateway technology is integrated and compatible with the multiple platforms of Acquiring banks (principal members of card schemes - VISA, MC, etc.) and other payment service providers globally as well as many ecommerce platforms, shopping carts, CRMs and other technologies. This allows for secure and compliant technical connection between the online businesses seeking a payment solution and the variety of payment service providers that CatalystPay cooperates with as an ISO.

On a policy side, CatalystPay maintains quite a robust AML, Fraud monitoring and Data protection program. The addition of our CCO/MLRO Dan Watson who is a compliance veteran helped us improve that area of business even further. We do understand that the financial services sector is built on customer’s trust and this is why we are heavily investing into building the risk management and compliance infrastructure and resources. 

6) How does CatalystPay approach customer feedback and continuously improve its services based on merchant needs?

We are very active on this front as we really like talking to customers (even the angry ones) ???? It can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of your company, leaving little time to focus on customer feedback and the high level strategy. However, customer reviews are a vital tool for improving products and services, and ultimately - the business results. We are encouraging our customers to give their feedback even if it’s negative, this is why we are maintaining various CS channels, we are active in social media and we utilise social proof tools like Trustpilot. It is important to remember that not all feedback will be positive, but negative feedback can be just as useful in identifying areas for improvement. Responding to feedback shows your customers that we value their opinions and are committed to providing a positive experience.

This helps us stay focused on the main goal - keep customers happy with our services, build loyalty and attract new ones. 

7) Are there any upcoming features, partnerships, or developments at CatalystPay that you can share with us?

At CatalystPay we are constantly working on improving our value proposition for merchants and expanding our reach with new partnerships and integrations. So you can expect to see some new acquiring partners available as well as some new integrations announced publicly soon.

In 2023 we are investing and working on a major project that will shift the company’s focus a bit but will eventually compliment and supercharge our value proposition for clients. So stay tuned for some big announcements towards the end of the year.