Nochex Acquired by PAYSTRAX: A New Chapter or Just a Fresh Logo?
So Nochex has been bought by PAYSTRAX. Let’s delve into that and what it means if you are a Nochex customer.
Back in 2011, I wrote a fairly candid review of Nochex after some mixed experiences with their seller and merchant accounts. To their credit, they engaged with me at the time, sorted things out, and we have kept a Nochex seller account ever since as a backup provider on some of our sites, and on Romancart for bespoke orders. It has worked fine for small transactions, even if their payouts are slower and their integrations never quite matched PayPal’s slickness. Over the years, PayPal has beaten them on fees as we grew, but I have always kept Nochex on the back burner, reliable enough when you need it.
Now it seems Nochex has entered a new era. They have just announced they have been acquired by a company called PAYSTRAX, a name I had honestly never come across before, despite actively researching payment providers for our international sites. That alone piqued my curiosity.
Who on earth are PAYSTRAX?
Although PAYSTRAX presents itself as a Lithuanian company, its founders are actually Icelandic. The chief executive, Jóhannes Ingi Kolbeinsson, and the technical director, Gunnar Már Gunnarsson, both come from Iceland’s financial technology scene. That might sound like an odd pairing, Icelandic management running a fintech from Vilnius, but it makes sense when you understand how the European payments system works.
Lithuania offers an easy route into the EU for payment companies. Its regulator, the Bank of Lithuania, issues licences faster and more cheaply than most of the larger EU states, and once a company is approved there, it can passport its services across the entire European Economic Area. For a small team from Iceland, which is outside the EU and has a very limited domestic market, setting up in Lithuania gives them full EU market access without the cost and complexity of licensing in France or Germany.
Since Brexit, Lithuania has been positioning itself as a sort of fintech gateway to the European Union. The Bank of Lithuania has handed out dozens of payment and e-money licences to firms from all over Europe that want quick access to the single market. It is cheaper and faster to set up there than in most EU states, and the regulator is considered friendly, even if rather thinly staffed.
So in essence, PAYSTRAX is an Icelandic company operating under a Lithuanian flag for regulatory convenience. The founders have sidestepped Iceland’s tiny domestic market and the lingering shadow of its banking collapse, where depositors, including many in Britain, lost money in the failures of Landsbanki, Kaupthing and Glitnir. By basing themselves in Lithuania, they have gained an EU foothold that allows them to passport financial services across the bloc without the cost or bureaucracy of setting up in one of the larger EU economies.
PAYSTRAX lists its UK address as Nile House, Nile Street, Brighton BN1 1HW. That is a shared workspace building which hosts hundreds of other companies, so the address is just for UK regulatory or administrative purposes rather than an actual, real business base. It remains to be seen if they will retain the physical offices of Nochex in Leeds, along with the UK support staff based there.
In other words, they are not a household name because they have mainly operated behind the scenes. Their core audience appears to be European small and medium businesses, fintech platforms, and independent sales organisations who need direct acquiring relationships rather than small merchants just wanting a simple “buy now” button. The acquisition of Nochex changes that. It gives PAYSTRAX an instant, if small, foothold in the UK’s retail-facing market with a known brand and a ready base of small e-commerce merchants who have been around since the early 2000s.
PAYSTRAX: My reservations about Lithuania and Iceland
While there is nothing inherently wrong with Lithuanian or Icelandic fintechs, both countries have baggage when it comes to financial stability. Lithuania has become a kind of mini fintech hub since Brexit, attracting dozens of startups chasing EU licences. However, it is a small jurisdiction with limited regulatory depth, a handful of officials overseeing hundreds of payment companies. Some of those firms have already folded or run into compliance issues, which is not confidence-inspiring when you are dealing with other people’s money.
Iceland’s record does not help either. I still remember the Landsbanki Guernsey collapse and the mess it created for depositors who ended up losing 8% of their money. That was a painful lesson in how quickly small financial systems can go wrong when global pressure hits. So while I am not suggesting PAYSTRAX is doing anything dubious, I am naturally wary of trusting a new Lithuanian-Icelandic operator with large balances. Caution is simply common sense.
What the PAYSTRAX acquisition means for Nochex users
Nochex has long been a mostly UK-focused payment option, popular with small e-commerce sellers who wanted to avoid PayPal’s habit of freezing accounts and reversing transactions on a whim. Their basic seller account worked fine for small domestic orders under £100, although their old merchant account system had off-putting security deposit requirements that many of us disliked. Over time, their limitations, such as UK cards only, low transaction caps, and slow payouts, meant they never grew into the real PayPal alternative they could have been.
With PAYSTRAX now behind them, that could change. The new owners are talking about enhanced reporting, new currencies, and more payment methods. If PAYSTRAX integrates its multi-currency acquiring network and EU licences properly, Nochex could finally start offering better international payments, faster settlements, and better API integrations. In theory, that might make it more relevant again for businesses trading in and beyond the UK.
PAYSTRAX’s bigger play: joining the PayPal and Stripe arena
Let us be honest, this takeover looks like PAYSTRAX’s attempt to move into the PayPal and Stripe space. They already have the back-end acquirer infrastructure, but they lacked a visible, consumer-facing brand. Nochex gives them that instantly. It is a shortcut to credibility in the UK e-commerce scene without starting from zero.
Whether they can actually compete with the big two is another matter entirely. PayPal and Stripe dominate because they have built massive ecosystems: seamless checkouts, developer APIs, fraud tools, credit offerings, and worldwide brand recognition. Nochex, by comparison, is a solid but modestly sized British operation with slower payouts and limited technical polish. PAYSTRAX might bring more modern systems and funding, but it remains a tall order to rival giants that process billions every week.
A cautious welcome to PAYSTRAX
From my perspective as a long-time Nochex user, the PAYSTRAX acquisition is neither bad news nor an immediate game changer. It is certainly not a scam, as PAYSTRAX is a real, regulated company, but it is new, small, and Baltic-based. Until they have built a longer track record under the FCA and we see where merchant funds are actually held, I will be treating them as I always have, a secondary provider that is handy to keep around but not somewhere to leave large balances sitting.
It will be interesting to see how much actually changes over the next year. If they can modernise the Nochex platform, expand currency support, and shorten payout times without overcomplicating things, they could quietly evolve into a decent alternative to PayPal again. If not, it will just be a new logo on the same old system. Either way, I will be watching closely and keeping my backups ready.
What should merchants do now?
There is no need to panic if you are a Nochex user. Your current setup should continue as normal for now. Just keep an eye on any communications from Nochex or PAYSTRAX, download and save your current account statements, and make sure you have a copy of your existing terms and fees. If new agreements appear, compare them carefully before signing.
For most merchants, it is business as usual, but if PAYSTRAX really does modernise the service, it could finally bring Nochex into the twenty-first century. Until then, keep your options open and your balances low.
Get a Nochex/Paystrax account >here<.