Thailand: Omise Becomes Direct Visa and Mastercard Acquirer, Cutting Out Middlemen
Omise, a payment gateway that started in Thailand, says it now connects directly to Visa and Mastercard as a card acquirer in the country. The change means Omise can sign up merchants, process their card payments and settle the money on its own systems, instead of passing that work through other banks or processors.
Key facts
- Omise announced on 10 November 2026 that it has become a direct acquirer for both Visa and Mastercard in Thailand.
- It can now handle card acquiring and settlement within its own infrastructure, adding to what it calls its “full-stack” payments platform.
- The company says merchants should see faster onboarding, fewer middlemen, better payment performance and, over time, clearer views of their transactions.
- Omise plans to build on the change with Acquiring-as-a-Service (AaaS), payment facilitation (PayFac) and payment orchestration for platforms, marketplaces, financial institutions and large businesses.
- Chief Operating Officer Sutthiporn Mekhaaphirak said Thailand “remains one of our most important markets”.
What a direct acquirer does
Every card payment has two sides. The issuer is the bank that gave the shopper the card. The acquirer is the institution that holds the shop’s account, receives the card transaction, and pays the shop its money after the sale. Many payment gateways do not hold that acquiring role themselves. They collect the payment and then hand it to a partner bank or processor that is the real acquirer, which adds another party, another set of fees and another step before funds reach the merchant.
By becoming a direct acquirer, Omise plugs straight into the Visa and Mastercard networks in Thailand. It keeps more of the payment chain in-house, from accepting the card to settling the funds. Omise says this gives it a base for better tools in authorisation (approving or declining a payment), reconciliation (matching payments to orders), reporting and fraud checks. It did not give a timeline for those features.
Why it matters
For Thai merchants, the practical gains are about speed and control. Opening a card-acceptance account can be slow when several companies must each approve a new shop. With one party running the process, onboarding can move faster, and problems such as failed payments or late settlements can be traced through a single provider rather than several.
The move also shows where payment gateways across Asia are heading. Simply passing transactions to a bank is a thin business. Firms that own the acquiring layer can earn more on each payment and sell extra services on top. That is the idea behind Omise’s planned offerings:
- Acquiring-as-a-Service would let other companies, such as banks or platforms, use Omise’s acquiring set-up instead of building their own.
- Payment facilitation would allow marketplaces and software platforms to sign up their own sellers as sub-merchants under Omise.
- Payment orchestration would route each payment through the best available method or provider to raise approval rates and cut costs.
Omise began in 2013 and launched in Thailand in 2015, becoming one of the first providers there to offer white-label, end-to-end online payments. It later expanded to Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, and today lists hubs in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and the United States. Malaysian merchants who use Omise will not see a direct change, as the new acquiring status applies only in Thailand, but the company’s push into acquiring is a model it could try to repeat in other markets.
The timing fits Thailand’s wider shift to digital payments. Shoppers there already rely heavily on PromptPay, the country’s national QR and instant transfer system, and online sellers increasingly trade across several channels and borders. Card acceptance remains important for e-commerce, travel and higher-value purchases, and for foreign visitors paying with cards from home.
What to watch
- When Omise rolls out its promised reporting, fraud management and orchestration features, and whether merchants see lower costs.
- Which banks, marketplaces or platforms sign up for its Acquiring-as-a-Service and PayFac offers in Thailand.
- Whether Omise seeks similar direct acquiring status in its other markets, including Singapore, Japan and Malaysia.
Related on FinDeskAsia: Payment gateways in Malaysia explained and ASEAN’s cross-border QR record.
Sources: The Paypers (November 2026), ThaiPR.NET (November 2026), The Business Plus (November 2026), Omise company profile (November 2026).
