Acquiring Partner Spotlight Series: Trust Payments
In the latest instalment of our Acquiring Partner Spotlight series, we introduce Trust Payments, a regulated acquirer helping businesses accept payments securely, improve transaction performance and settle funds reliably across multiple markets.
For Axcess merchants, Trust Payments provides the regulated acquiring infrastructure behind the transaction. Its scheme relationships, banking network and risk controls support dependable payment acceptance, while Axcess manages the wider merchant relationship through consultancy, technology, sector expertise and hands-on support.
Together, the two businesses help merchants build payment arrangements around their customer journeys, operational requirements and plans for growth. Trust Payments provides the acquiring capability; Axcess helps merchants select, implement and optimise the wider solution.
“We deliver innovative commerce solutions through future-proofed technology and enhanced customer experiences that help businesses grow sustainably.”
Laurence Booth, CEO, Trust Payments
Regulated acquiring built for performance
With more than 25 years of payments experience, Trust Payments processes around £24 billion annually across more than 100 currencies. Its acquiring network spans over 50 global banks and supports card acceptance through Visa, Mastercard, and Discover Global Network for cross-border businesses operating across the UK and EU.
This combination of scheme relationships, banking connectivity and acquiring experience supports strong approval performance, dependable settlement and operational resilience. Merchants benefit from the reach of an established acquirer while retaining Axcess as their strategic payments partner and primary point of contact.
Supporting complex and regulated sectors
Trust Payments works with merchants across travel, hospitality, retail, foreign exchange and financial services. These sectors often need more than straightforward card processing: they may operate across several channels and currencies, face complex regulatory requirements, or need payment arrangements that fit precisely within booking, customer-service and settlement processes.
Trust Payments can support a broad range of payment methods and channels, giving customers more choice while reducing friction around acceptance and settlement. Axcess works with each merchant to determine which capabilities are relevant and how they should fit into the wider payment environment.
Every merchant is supported by a dedicated Trust Payments Sales Executive and Account Manager. Alongside Axcess’s first-line support and sector knowledge, regular reviews and continuous optimisation make the acquiring relationship an ongoing partnership rather than a one-off implementation.
Acquiring and acceptance capabilities across every channel
Trust Payments provides the acquiring reach and acceptance options merchants need across online, in-store and mobile channels:
- Online card acceptance and access to more than 400 payment methods
- Point-of-sale and mobile payment acceptance
- Apple Pay, Trustly, Pay by Bank and other alternative methods
- Virtual Terminal capability for mail order and telephone order payments
- Payment links that allow customers to pay at a convenient time
- Settlement in 17 currencies through a network of more than 50 international banks
- Transaction reporting and analytics through the Trust Payments environment
Merchants can select the acquiring and acceptance capabilities that suit their business rather than being forced into a uniform package. Axcess then helps connect those capabilities with the merchant’s own systems, operational processes and wider payment strategy.
Trust Payments also includes free 24/7 customer support as standard. Combined with published uptime of 99.99%, this service model helps merchants maintain payment continuity when their operations cannot afford disruption.
Turning acquiring data into action
Payment acceptance generates valuable information about approvals, declines, fraud, customer preferences and operational efficiency. Trust Payments’ TRU Insight analytics capability helps merchants understand transactional trends and identify where changes to payment methods, routing or controls could improve performance.
Axcess builds on this acquiring insight through its own payments technology and consultancy. utlx, Axcess’s intelligent payments platform, can bring data from banks, acquirers and payment methods into a consolidated operating view, with real-time monitoring, routing and reconciliation capabilities. Axcess can help businesses consider approval quality, cost, resilience, settlement, customer experience and the operational work required behind each transaction.
Why the Axcess and Trust Payments partnership works
When a requirement is complex, the teams work together to solve it rather than passing responsibility between providers.
This is particularly valuable in travel, one of the strongest shared areas of expertise. The partnership is also positioned to support hospitality groups, cruise operators, retailers and other omnichannel businesses, as well as Axcess merchants expanding across Europe.
“We want to make payments simple, and partnerships like this are essential to enhancing existing applications with solutions that embed powerful payment functionality seamlessly. By collaborating, we help elevate customer experiences with a frictionless payment process, ensuring convenience and security and empowering customers with seamless payment integration.”
Laurence Booth, CEO, Trust Payments
“Trust Payments has become an important strategic partner for Axcess because the relationship goes well beyond processing. Their acquiring reach, scheme relationships and settlement capabilities provide a strong foundation, while Axcess brings the technology, consultancy and merchant support needed to turn that infrastructure into the right solution for each business.”
Nick Fox, Chief Executive Officer, Axcess Payments Group
Where Axcess adds value
The partnership is designed to help merchants manage more than the moment of payment. Axcess works with businesses to understand where friction, cost or risk sits across the whole payment journey, then brings together the appropriate acquiring, acceptance and operational capabilities.
That may mean introducing local or alternative payment methods, improving the way telephone payments are handled, using payment links to reduce collection delays, or connecting Trust Payments’ acquiring services into a broader multi-provider environment. Axcess’s own technology provides visibility and control across that ecosystem, while its consultancy team reviews performance and recommends changes as customer behaviour and business priorities evolve.
Axcess also acts as first-line support for its merchants. Because the teams work closely together, issues can be addressed quickly: if a device fails, an alternative payment-link solution can be introduced; if a merchant is left without service, onboarding can be accelerated. The merchant receives one accountable relationship rather than being left to coordinate multiple providers.
“Merchants do not need more complexity. They need clear advice, reliable acquiring and useful data that helps them act. Trust Payments gives us a strong acquiring partner, while Axcess provides the technology, sector expertise and ongoing support that turns payment infrastructure into better commercial outcomes.”
Nick Fox, Chief Executive Officer, Axcess Payments Group
Merchant outcomes in practice
Trust Payments’ customer case studies show how effective acquiring and payment acceptance can improve performance across sectors.
A money transfer provider processes more than 250,000 transactions annually, worth approximately £22 million. It has achieved a 91% approval rate, a 0.01% chargeback ratio and a 0.07% fraud ratio. Customers can pay by card or use options including Trustly, Apple Pay and Pay by Bank.
For a Portuguese hotel, broader payment choice and a more efficient process have reduced commission costs and the time reception staff spend collecting payments. The hotel reports an overall approval rate of 86.42%, rising to 92.32% when cardholder-fault declines are excluded, with no reported fraud or chargebacks.
A travel operator can collect international payments faster by letting customers pay immediately or through a payment link when convenient. In another case study, next-day settlement helps a business meet payment deadlines, while account-management responses typically arrive in under an hour.
Across these examples, the benefits extend beyond checkout conversion: more customer choice, faster collection, greater control and less manual work.
The future of trusted acquiring
Payments are becoming more real-time, data-led and embedded across the customer journey. Digital identity will continue to develop, while AI agents are beginning to participate in product discovery and purchasing. These changes create opportunity, but they also make trust and accountability more important.
Trust Payments’ investment in analytics, real-time payments, passkeys and biometric authentication reflects that balance between innovation and control. Axcess’s role is to help merchants assess where new capabilities create genuine value and how they should be introduced within a secure, resilient payment strategy.
Looking ahead
The strongest acquiring partnerships combine dependable infrastructure with people and technology that understand the merchant’s business
Together, Axcess and Trust Payments can help businesses replace fragmented arrangements with a connected, resilient approach – giving merchants greater control today and a stronger foundation for growth across new channels and markets.
