Sell a Payment Processing / ISO business

Owner-operator payment processing / iso businesses trade at 3.5x–5.5x SDE for typical $500K–$3M SDE ranges. At $3M+ EBITDA scale the same operators sell at 7x–13x EBITDA. Multiples in this category are ebitda-based and data-sourced from InsuranceJournal Q4 2024 + Cerulli Associates RIA M&A 2025 + Optis Partners. Where you land in the range is driven by growth trajectory, revenue mix, customer concentration, and management-team depth beyond the owner.

Fiserv (NASDAQ: FI), Global Payments (NYSE: GPN), Shift4 (NYSE: FOUR), and PE platforms (Advent International, Bain Capital) drive strategic consolidation. Active buyer archetypes in financial services include Aggregator / roll-up platform, Financial services PE, Internal succession. Which of these bids for your business depends on scale — sub-$1M SDE is typically individual or search-fund territory, $1-3M SDE opens up PE platforms and strategics, and $3M+ EBITDA gets full LMM buyer attention.

Payment-processing ISOs and integrated-payments providers with vertical-specific software integration (ISV partnerships), transparent-pricing model, and low-churn merchant base trade at premium. Beyond the industry-specific factor, the universal drivers in financial services are recurring commission or aum revenue (not one-time transactional); client retention rate (>95% for premium multiples); book of business quality (commercial vs personal, hnw vs mass market).

Payment-processing merchant bases face steady attrition to platform-owned processors (Square, Stripe, Toast, Shopify Payments); buyers scrutinize your ISV-integrated vs referral-agent merchant mix. Buyers in this category also standardly scrutinize producer / advisor departure with book of business and carrier or custodian concentration. Addressing these in advance in a well-prepared CIM materially reduces retrade risk during diligence.

Typical transaction range for payment processing / iso is $1.0M–$60M in annual revenue. Below that, buyer pool narrows to individual and small-search-fund. Above that, PE platforms and strategics dominate. NAICS code 522320 — buyers screen by NAICS in most deal sources.

From the day you engage a broker to close, expect 6–12 months for a well-prepared business in financial services. The prep work — financial cleanup, addbacks documentation, key-employee retention agreements, real estate lease sorting — is where 3-6 months of the timeline hides. Starting that early is what separates a full-multiple exit from a discounted one.