Stripe, Block, and PayPal were never required to process transactions.
You can negotiate with a bank to get your own rate and then implement your own secure transaction processing. Visa is still required though.
I have worked at companies that bypassed those middlemen. Many companies don’t do it because they are okay with paying higher fees so they don’t have to deal with that extra headache, or because they work at smaller companies that think Stripe, Block, and PayPal invented payment processing when Visa and banks have been around for decades longer.
You can negotiate with a bank to get your own rate and then implement your own secure transaction processing. Visa is still required though.
I have worked at companies that bypassed those middlemen. Many companies don’t do it because they are okay with paying higher fees so they don’t have to deal with that extra headache, or because they work at smaller companies that think Stripe, Block, and PayPal invented payment processing when Visa and banks have been around for decades longer.