Finovate Global Lithuania: Making Card Payments More Profitable with Torus

Finovate Global Lithuania: Making Card Payments More Profitable with Torus

This week, Finovate Global travels to Lithuania to talk about payment card optimization with Torus’ Kirill Lisitsyn.

The payment card business is among the most competitive areas of financial services. But are some of the greatest opportunities for companies to profit being overlooked? A growing number of fintechs have developed strategies and technologies to help card issuers and acquirers access millions of dollars in cost savings and missed revenue by better controlling card network fees and enhancing transactional profitability.

Lithuania-based Torus is one such fintech. Founded in 2021 and making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024, Torus offers a SaaS intelligence platform for banks and acquirers that enhances profits on card transactions by up to 50%. The company enables card issuers and merchant acquirers to optimize card scheme fees and boost transactional earnings via pricing optimization and profitability analysis at the card and merchant level.

To discuss this field, and the opportunities it presents for card issuers and merchant acquirers, we caught up with Torus Co-Founder and CEO Kirill Lisitsyn (pictured). Lisitsyn brings to bear more than 15 years of experience leading payments consulting projects at firms such as Accenture and Mastercard.

Torus most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope in February.


What problem does Torus solve and who does it solve it for?

Kirill Lisitsyn: Torus is a SaaS platform for in-depth analysis and optimization of scheme fees (Visa, Mastercard) for issuers, merchant acquirers, and now large merchants. We automate the collection, forecasting, and reconciliation of both transaction flows and invoice data, so that our clients can see accurate cost and profit metrics at the level of transaction, product, merchant, region—and beyond.

How does Torus solve this problem better than other companies or solutions?

Lisitsyn: We provide nearly 98% fee prediction accuracy, and our plug-and-play setup enables end-to-end analytics with minimum resources needed from the customer side. Torus goes beyond pretty dashboards to deliver optimization recommendations backed by industry benchmarks and detailed “what-if” simulations.

Who are Torus’ primary customers. How do you reach them?

Lisitsyn: Our clients include banks, fintechs, BaaS providers, PSPs, and large merchants across Europe, the UK, Central Asia, and Japan. We reach them through targeted outreach, industry conferences, high-visibility publications, and strategic partnerships with top-tier industry players.

We’re also building a community around card economics. I run a LinkedIn page where I share insights on scheme fee mechanics, analysis pitfalls, and market updates.

Many clients come to us after seeing just one number: $1M+ in annual losses that could be avoided with better visibility.

Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology?

Lisitsyn: One EU-based e-commerce acquirer used to assess profitability by portfolio averages—and was losing up to 10% on hidden merchant-level losses. With Torus, they switched to granular analysis, identified low-margin segments, updated pricing, and increased overall portfolio margin by 30%. These are real, realized gains—not slideware.

What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Lisitsyn: We have productized over a hundred years of joint team expertise in the card payments industry—coming from different segments of the industry, players like Mastercard, Global Payments, Societe Generale, Worldline, and various other banks. This is our unfair advantage which gives us a deep understanding of where the pain points are. When your team includes former scheme insiders, “scheme fees” stop being scary and start becoming manageable.

What is the fintech ecosystem in Lithuania like? What is the relationship between fintechs, banks, and traditional financial services companies in Lithuania?

Lisitsyn: Lithuania is a magnet for fintech startups: a responsive regulator, fast-track licensing, and tech-forward infrastructure. Banks here are increasingly open to partnerships, and startups are learning to scale responsibly and operate under real-world pressures. 

Torus is a great example of how legacy banking know-how and fintech velocity can combine into something powerful. We are proud to both actively contribute to the Lithuanian ecosystem and represent it internationally.

You demoed at FinovateEurope earlier this year. How was your experience?

Lisitsyn: This year we demoed our product for BaaS providers. We showcased how Torus enables these players to accurately calculate scheme fees and interchange per transaction, allocate costs, and build margin-based pricing for their fintech partners.

We demonstrated that BaaS can move beyond volume games and become a margin game.

Finovate is built for showing working products to real decision-makers—and our demo generated several highly relevant inbound requests for our BaaS module.

What are your goals for Torus? What can we expect to hear from you in the months to come?

Lisitsyn: We’re scaling fast. This year includes multiple product launches and major feature updates. Just a month ago, we released our new product, Merchant Cost Indicator—a tool that estimates transaction costs without needing real data. It predicts interchange and scheme fees based on country, MCC, and channel, giving acquirers and BIN sponsors instant, reliable margin calculations.

Coming next is a dynamic profit-based pricing module, embedded analytics for BaaS, and AI agents to support profitability control, pricing and decision workflows.

We’re shaping a new standard of transparency and profitability controls in card economics. Our strength lies in combining deep industry expertise with true product velocity. We know where the market is heading—and we’re already moving to clear the path.


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

  • The Stock Exchange of Thailand announced deployment of risk and surveillance platforms courtesy of its expanded strategic technology partnership with the Nasdaq.
  • Adyen selected Fiskil as its data-sharing partner to enhance onboarding and account verification for merchants in Australia.
  • Vietnam-based securities company Kafi went live with Horizon Trading Solutions.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Israel-based BioCatch and The Knoble co-launched an anti-scam guide and cost calculator.
  • MENA-based virtual assets trading platform BitOasis expanded to Bahrain.
  • The government of Dubai partnered with Crypto.com to enable crypto payments for government fees.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Forbes profiled Razorpay co-founder Harshil Mathur.
  • Pakistani fintech ABHI partnered with UAE-based LuLuFin to enhance financial inclusion and remittance solutions.
  • Indian fintech unicorn Moneyview readies for an initial public offering.

Photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash

FinovateEurope 2025 Sneak Peek Series: Part 5

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 25. Register today using this link and save 20%.

Byne

Byne is a secure, on-premise platform that lets teams build AI agents to automate document-heavy workflows while keeping sensitive data protected within company walls.

Features

  • Build AI agents without code for document workflows
  • Deploy anywhere – on-premise or cloud
  • Deliver enterprise-grade security with sensitive data protection

Who’s it for?

Regulated enterprises.

EKAI

EKAI’s AI Compliance Co-Pilot applies automation, speed, and a unified customer view to regulation workflows.

Features

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Who’s it for?

Banks, insurers, fintechs (including payments), investment managers, private markets, and the health, energy, and logistics industries.

PromoComply

PromoComply is the fastest and most comprehensive platform for ensuring compliance of financial promotions, throughout the entire promotion lifecycle.

Features

  • Ensures financial promotions comply with all regulations
  • Streamlines collaboration between all stakeholders, partners, and regulators
  • Saves time and money – shortens process from weeks to minutes

Who’s it for?

All businesses promoting financial products in the U.K. market.

RE-ViVE

RE-ViVE is a process intelligence platform revolutionizing how businesses optimize, monitor, and transform their workflows, with a particular focus on the BFSI and fintech sectors.

Features

  • Map and analyze hundreds of workflows from raw data within minutes
  • Offer agentic AI functionality
  • Deliver actionable insights across diverse systems and workflows

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, community banks, payment providers, insurance companies, BFSI system integrators, fintech companies (partnership), and any SMB with complex processes.

Torus

Torus is an award-winning SaaS intelligence platform for banks and fintechs that aims to enhance profits on card transactions by up to 50%.

Features

  • Understands transaction-level costs and revenues daily allocation with 98% accuracy
  • Provides profit-based pricing for fintech partners
  • Offers agentic AI support

Who’s it for?

Banks, BaaS providers, credit unions, card issuers, merchant acquirers, and payment providers.

FinovateEurope 2024 Sneak Peek Series: Part 3

FinovateEurope 2024 Sneak Peek Series: Part 3

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 27. Register today using this link and save 20%.

Centi

Centi introduces a revolutionary digital finance platform, enabling seamless cash-to-digital-currency conversion and micropayments for unbanked people.

Features

  • Delivers efficient, low-value micropayment processing for everyone
  • Offers simple sign up for easy access, including unbanked individuals
  • Provides advanced, scalable infrastructure that supports global transactions

Who’s it for?

Financial institutions, merchants, and both unbanked and banked individuals.

DashDevs

Fintech Core by DashDevs is a white label, modular banking software solution for the creation and quick launch of digital banking and payment products as apps or on the web.

Features

  • Offers source code based modular fintech solution
  • Accelerates time to launch for digital banks
  • Includes ready to use modules

Who’s it for?

Banks, startups, and small-and-medium-sized businesses.

Delega

Delega makes treasury easy by fully digitizing delegation of authority between corporates and their banks.

Features

  • Offers improved efficiency
  • Improves customer experience
  • Lowers operational risk and hassle of collaboration

Who’s it for?

Mid-and-large-sized corporations and banks.

Kern AI

Kern AI is a German innovation-focused startup crafting specialized generative AI applications for the financial sector.

Features

  • Deploy reliable and secure GenAI applications within days
  • Streamline knowledge-intensive tasks
  • Test safely and rapidly with LLMs

Who’s it for?

Banks, financial institutions, and insurance companies.

NF Innova

NF Innova helps banks, lenders, and microfinance institutions provide state-of-the-art digital banking services to their end-customers, decrease their costs, and increase their level of innovation.

Features

  • Creates unique personalized retail banking experiences
  • Delivers Right User experience (UX) according to dynamic profiling
  • Provides opportunity for micro-segmentation

Who’s it for?

Banks of all sizes, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), and lenders across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Torus

Torus is a SaaS intelligence platform for banks and payment providers that improves their profits on card transactions by 15-40% by analyzing and predicting Visa and Mastercard fees.

Features

  • Delivers transaction-level scheme fee prediction
  • Offers merchant-level profitability calculation
  • Highlights real IC++ pricing

Who’s it for?

Issuers and acquirers that are principal members of Visa and/or Mastercard (banks, EMIs, PIs).

Tradelite Solutions

Tradelite Solutions’ web3 financial education world, Mogaland, is shaping the future of personal finance with game-based learning, a token economy, and unprecedented data-driven financial personals.

Features

  • Makes finance accessible and fun through game-based learning
  • Empowers everyone to boost financial literacy with web3 incentives
  • Creates a next gen DeFi marketplace with a token and data powered economy

Who’s it for?

Millennials and GenZ individuals who want to improve their personal finance skills and crypto-related product and service providers.