Case studies

How a High-Risk PSP Switched Acquirers in One Week — Without Losing a Single Recurring Customer

High-risk · Recurring · Token migration • April 2026

95% Tokens migrated Of available tokens transferred to the new acquirer

~1 week Full migration Complete acquirer switch, no rebuild of the payment base

0 Payment interruptions Recurring transactions continued throughout

At a glance

Client: A high-risk PSP working with recurring payments and a large base of stored card data
Challenge: Acquirer went offline overnight — stored cards at risk, recurring payments could stop
Solution: Payment data migration — token extraction, conversion, re-tokenisation
Result: 95% of available tokens migrated in about one week — zero customer action required

Segment: High-risk PSP
Use case: Recurring payments
Timeline: ~1 week

Solution used

Tokenization

Case study 02 · names protected by NDA

Case study 02

Challenge

The client's acquiring partner became unavailable, creating an immediate threat to the business.

The problem was not just finding a new acquirer. It was the risk of losing all stored card data — and with it, the ability to continue charging returning customers.

Without a solution, this would have meant

Loss of recurring revenue

Payment flows coming to a stop

Customers being asked to re-enter their card details — with a significant share never doing so

The challenge was not finding a new acquirer. It was keeping the payment base intact during the switch.

Case study 02

Solution

The eComCharge team completed the full migration in approximately one week. The process included

Securely extracting available tokenised payment data from the previous acquirer

Generating new tokens compatible with the new acquiring partner

Ensuring recurring transactions could resume without any action required from customers

Payment data migration process

Infrastructure-level migration — customers never need to re-enter their card details

1

Acquirer becomes unavailable
Risk to stored cards and recurring flows
2

Data extraction
Tokenised card data retrieved from the previous acquirer
3

Token conversion
New tokens generated, compatible with the new acquirer
✓

Payments resume
Recurring transactions continue — zero customer action required

Key conditions for successful migration

Previous acquirer willing to share tokenised data

New acquirer able to accept migrated tokens

Compatible tokenisation formats between providers

Case study 02

What changed

The PSP switched its entire acquiring infrastructure without rebuilding its payment base. Stored cards continued to work. Recurring payments continued without a gap.

Migration was handled at the infrastructure level — not at the customer level. Customers never noticed a thing.

Case study 02

Result

The PSP

Successfully migrated 95% of available tokens provided by the previous acquirer

Preserved its existing payment base

Avoided disruption to recurring transactions

Maintained business continuity during the acquirer switch

Completed the full migration in approximately one week

Note. Not all tokens from the previous acquirer were available for transfer — this depends on what the outgoing provider is able and willing to share. The 95% figure reflects the tokens that were technically accessible.

Case study 02

Why it worked

Instead of asking users to re-enter payment details, the PSP retained control over its payment data and moved it across providers. Customers never noticed a thing.

When migration becomes critical

When payment data migration becomes critical

Payment data migration becomes essential in situations where

An acquirer suddenly becomes unavailable or exits the market

A PSP needs to switch partners due to risk, compliance, or performance reasons

A business relies heavily on stored card data and recurring transactions

This applies to both

Existing PSPs already operating on the platform

New PSPs migrating from another provider

Key considerations

Key considerations before migration

Successful migration depends on several critical factors

Whether the previous provider and its acquiring partners are able and willing to share tokenized payment data

Whether the new acquiring partner can accept and process migrated tokens

The format and compatibility of tokenization across providers

Each migration scenario is unique and requires coordination between all involved parties. However, when these conditions are met, migration can significantly reduce switching risk and protect ongoing revenue streams.

Results

High-risk PSP · Recurring payments · Acquirer migration

95%

Tokens migrated

Of available tokens transferred from previous acquirer

✓ Cards

Payment base preserved

Stored cards remained usable after the switch

0 gaps

No payment interruption

Recurring transactions continued without downtime

~1 week

Full migration time

Complete acquirer switch without rebuilding the payment base

Migration was handled at the infrastructure level — customers never re-entered their card details, and the PSP retained full control over its payment data.

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