Why Business Continuity Matters for Payment Service Providers

When it comes to digital transactions, payment service providers (PSPs) sit at the heart of the global financial ecosystem. Whether powering consumer checkouts, managing disbursements, or issuing virtual cards, PSPs enable real-time financial activity for billions of transactions and millions of users around the world. Regulatory compliance is crucial to this industry – ensuring consumer data and transactions are protected.

With this level of criticality, any service disruption – particularly from a damaging distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack – can trigger not only direct financial loss, but serious operational and reputational consequences. That is why maintaining online business continuity is more than a goal – it is a business-critical requirement.

The Financial Services That Can’t Afford Downtime

Payment service providers deliver a range of financial infrastructure services that demand constant availability. Here are four areas where uninterrupted service is essential:

• Payment Acceptance – PSPs allow merchants to accept credit cards, debit cards, local payment methods, bank transfers, and mobile wallets across global markets. If services go down, businesses cannot process payments – resulting in immediate revenue loss and customer frustration.
• Disbursements and Payouts – Many platforms rely on PSPs to send payments to vendors, suppliers, workers, or customers. These can include payroll, gig economy earnings, and international remittances. Downtime here causes delays that can damage trust and stall business operations.
• Digital Wallets and Virtual Accounts – PSPs often offer wallet infrastructure that supports multi-currency balances and virtual accounts. If access is disrupted, users may be locked out of their funds – which can escalate into reputational damage or even regulatory attention.
• Card Issuing and Processing – Issuing virtual or physical cards is a growing part of the PSP offering. If a DDoS incident disrupts card processing, users may be unable to complete transactions – harming both consumer confidence and platform reliability.

What High Availability Really Looks Like

To meet enterprise and regulatory expectations, leading PSPs typically commit to uptime targets above 99.9 percent. Achieving this level of reliability requires:

• Redundant infrastructure across multiple regions
• Real-time monitoring and alerting for cyber-attacks
• Testing and validating that deployed security measures are operating optimally
• Automated failover systems
• Disaster recovery planning
• Distributed data centers

These measures are particularly critical for payment platforms – where even brief service disruptions can result in lost customers and regulatory scrutiny.

Estimating the Base Loss of a 6-Hour DDoS Outage

It’s impossible to come up with numbers that work for everyone. However, while the exact financial impact of downtime varies and reflects transactional volume, we can build a realistic estimate.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the annual Gross Transaction Volume (GTV) processed by a mid-sized PSP falls within the range of $1 billion to $10 billion USD per year. Transaction revenue depends on the take rate (the PSP’s cut per transaction), which typically ranges from 0.5% to 1.5%, depending on services, risk level, and merchant type. So, the revenue formula is:

Revenue = GTV  ×  Take Rate

Let’s take, just as one example, a PSP with the following:

• Gross Transaction Volume (GTV): $10B
• Take rate: 1%
• Hours in a year: 8,760

In this case, the base loss could be calculated as follows:

Bottom line: At a 1% take rate, a 6-hour DDoS outage would likely cost a PSP approximately $68,490.

Keep in mind that this calculation is accurate under an “even distribution” assumption, but real-world loss could be lower or higher, depending on:

• Time of day
• Day of the week
• Season (e.g., Black Friday spike)
• Geography

The Ripple Effects of DDoS

Beyond direct losses, a DDoS-driven outage creates a ripple effect that can quickly escalate:

Thus, the sustained impact of damaging DDoS downtime – when you take into account the SLA penalties, operational responses, and reputational damage – can push costs into 6-digit numbers. Especially when factoring in industry-standard metrics for financial and operational fallout. And this is a conservative estimate.

For context, a Forbes Technology Council article  cites downtime costs of $9,000 per minute as a rough baseline ($540,000 per hour) but notes that high-risk sectors like financial services may face losses exceeding $5M per hour. (This is likely true only for the largest businesses.)

Business Continuity is a Competitive Advantage

In the payments world, uptime is not just a technical metric – it is a competitive necessity. Enterprises that rely on PSP infrastructure expect it to be low friction, secure, and always available. When services falter, customers do not wait – they move on.

By validating the performance and configuration of their DDoS defenses, PSPs can mitigate these risks and preserve trust. Continuous testing, proactive monitoring, and layered mitigation strategies are no longer optional – they are central to protecting the business and the users it serves.

MazeBolt Helps PSPs Achieve Measurable ROI on DDoS Security

Many PSPs only test their DDoS protections once or twice a year – but the DDoS misconfigurations and vulnerabilities that expose organizations can appear any day. RADAR™ by MazeBolt is a must-have enhancement to your deployed DDoS protection solutions, delivering continuous DDoS testing without disrupting live production services.

RADAR uncovers DDoS vulnerabilities across Scrubbing Centers, firewalls, Web Application Firewalls (WAFs), and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) – and provides AI-guided and prioritized remediation guidance. This ensures that every part of your DDoS mitigation stack is working as intended.

If your business depends on service continuity – and your clients depend on you – it’s time to validate that your DDoS protection solutions are working effectively to prevent damaging DDoS downtime. Let RADAR help you identify what’s working, what’s failing, and what’s still exposed.

Want to see how MazeBolt helps real PSPs stay resilient against DDoS threats? Read the case study!

Skim Outline

• Payment Service Providers power critical financial infrastructure globally
• DDoS attacks can trigger major financial loss
• SLA penalties and churn can increase the total business impact to 6-digit numbers
• According to a Forbes Technology Council article, downtime can cost as much as $9,000/minute ($540,000/hour)
• Uptime is now a competitive differentiator
• Continuous, nondisruptive DDoS testing is essential for DDoS resilience

FAQ

1. Why is business continuity critical for Payment Service Providers (PSPs)?
   Because service disruptions can lead to financial, operational, and reputational damage.
2. What services do Payment Service Providers (PSPs) provide that require uptime?
   Payment acceptance, disbursements, wallets, card issuing, and more all rely on continuous availability.
3. How much can a 6-hour DDoS outage cost Payment Service Providers (PSPs)?
   While there are several factors that impact the cost, Typically, it can cost up to $68,490 in direct revenue loss – at a 1% take rate.
4. What additional costs can DDoS attacks create?
   SLA penalties, customer churn, reputational harm, and regulatory exposure.
5. What does high availability look like for Payment Service Providers (PSPs)?
   It includes redundancy, real-time monitoring, automated failover, and disaster recovery.
6. How can Payment Service Providers (PSPs) strengthen their DDoS defenses?
   By validating protections using the continuous, nondisruptive DDoS testing provided by RADAR™ by MazeBolt.