Episode 9: The Business Cataylst

Demystifying Payments and Banking for the Modern Entrepreneur

In this episode, Sadaf Abbas interviews Viktoria Soltesz—award-winning payment consultant, author, and founder of PSP Angels and The Soltesz Institute. Viktoria shares her journey from tax advisory in Cyprus to becoming a leading voice in the banking and fintech ecosystem. She emphasizes the importance of bridging knowledge gaps in financial services and demystifying banking complexities for entrepreneurs and finance professionals. They explore real-world challenges in cross-border banking, onboarding, compliance, and regulatory shifts—especially within regions like the UAE and EU. Viktoria also highlights her mission to promote ethical, transparent practices through training, mentorship, and her bestselling book, Moving Money.

About Our Guest

Also Available On Your Favorite Platforms

• Spotify
• SoundCloud

What You’ll Learn:

• Viktoria’s journey from tax advisory to becoming a top global payment strategist.
• How gaps in financial education led to the creation of The Soltesz Institute.
• Practical insights into banking complexities, compliance, and onboarding delays.
• The critical importance of UBO/KYC in global jurisdictions like the UAE and EU.
• Real examples of how poor planning in banking setup affects company operations.
• Viktoria’s unique approach to training—blending consulting with hands-on education.
• The philosophy behind her book Moving Money and how it helps professionals avoid costly mistakes.
• Why ethical, compliant, and strategic financial infrastructure is non-negotiable for sustainable growth.

Transcript

Sadaf Abbas: Welcome to the “Business Catalyst Podcast,” where we dive into the minds of industry leaders shaping the future of finance, business, and innovation. I’m your host, Sadaf Abbas, and today I’m thrilled to welcome a truly remarkable guest, Viktoria Soltesz. With over two decades of experience in banking, payments, and taxation, Viktoria has built a reputation as one of the foremost experts in her field. She is an author, trainer, consultant, entrepreneur, and for three consecutive years, the recipient of the Payment Consultant of the Year award.

Sadaf Abbas: So, Viktoria, welcome to the podcast! It’s an absolute pleasure to have you with us.

Viktoria Soltesz: Well, thank you so much for inviting me and allowing me to share the journey and all the missions that I’m representing. So, I’m really excited for this conversation. Thank you very much again for having me on this.

Sadaf Abbas: Thank you. So, let’s start with your introduction and background in more detail. Viktoria, with such a deeply seasoned background in this complex industry, I would really love to ask: as you are not just a consultant, but you are also an author, trainer, and entrepreneur, how do these diverse roles work together to support your broader mission? So, what’s the synergy between them?

Viktoria Soltesz: Well, maybe we need to go back to the past to give you a full context of where I am coming from, and how I ended up in payments and banking. Because I think everybody stumbles across and ends up in payments and banking somehow. No one really studies to become a payment and banking expert because there is no real education around it. So, that’s what happened to me as well 20 years ago, a long time ago. It’s too long to even mention. But 20 years ago, Cyprus, which is a small little island on the Mediterranean, joined the EU, and at that time, a lot of international companies came to Cyprus to incorporate a sister company for tax optimization purposes. Still being in the EU, they used the Euro. So, it was a perfect opportunity for joining the international financial system. So, I started to work as a tax accountant. I was helping all these international companies set up a company in Cyprus, explaining to them about taxation, helping them to make the right decisions, accounting, and all the fiduciary services around it.

But my clients started to come to me more and more about the problems of payments and banking. They told me that, “Viktoria, I understand that when you are setting up a company, and of course we are doing tax optimization on paper, everything works well. But how come the banks are asking all of these questions? They are deciding what payment to send, what to keep back, and overall, this whole payments and banking is like a very complex situation that we don’t really understand.” Of course, I was an accountant; they came to me for answers, and then I realized that I don’t know anything about it, right? Because accountants are just not trained on even the basic banking and payment expressions. We don’t know what SWIFT transfers are. We don’t know what open banking is, the latest Fintech innovation. We are not technical people — data, security, integration, and compliance. So, that’s when I realized that, “Oh, there are a lot of things that I don’t know, and my clients are expecting answers from me.”

So, that’s when I started to dig deeper and started to really understand how banks think about why they are allowing certain transactions and blocking others. What are the different banking languages that they are using? What are the fees, obviously, that I have to pay that they didn’t mention, you know, forgot to mention about hidden fees and this whole world of very complex payments and banking setups? So, I started to work as a consultant because I realized that these are the issues which are obviously tax and incorporating a company is one thing, but how you are actually putting that into action. How can you make sure that your clients not only have the right taxation setup, but have the right bank to execute that, because without a bank, obviously you can’t, you can’t, really.

So, that’s why I started my company, which is an independent payment and consultancy, PSP Angels, where we are setting up structures which are related to tax, related to finance, a bit of compliance, a bit of technical jargon. So, the whole operation is supported by the relevant payment and banking strategy: where the money comes from, how much, how often, what currency, which bank is handling that, what is the risk of using that bank or using an alternative one? What are the best payment methods to open up to new markets and move funds even within the group? So, there are a lot of moving parts that we are talking about now, and it’s actually making sense. But once you’re a finance professional, you might not even think about these things.

So, that’s how I started as a payment and banking consultant, and when I started to work with other accountants and other CFOs who were just as clueless as me at the beginning, that’s when I realized that, “Wait a minute. There is no overall education around this subject. No one is really teaching you how cards work, how open banking shifts money from one bank account to another, and all other parts of the payments and banking which is out there. You can Google it, you can self-educate. But if you’re responsible for handling funds, Googling and guessing is not necessarily the best way to go forward.” So, that’s why I started the Soltesz Institute, which is currently the only educational center which is dealing specifically with payments and banking problems. And it’s independent. So, it’s not supported by any payment provider or any bank, but an individual initiative, where all the payment providers and all the users can come together and share ideas, learn about the subject. We try to set the standard for an ethical and transparent industry.

Sadaf Abbas: Perfect. So, you already answered my third question, basically, Viktoria. Thank you so much! [Laughs]

Viktoria Soltesz: [Laughs] Sorry, I’m just so passionate about it.

Sadaf Abbas: So, yes. After the PSP and just introduction… Okay, and now you are not just the consultant, but you also mentor the team as well. Once you are the consultant for the company, the rest of your shoulder, your guidance, your mentorship, your training to the team as well is very important. So, let’s move on to the Soltesz Institute and education. You offer flexible learning models, from face-to-face training to online courses and webinars. So, how do you maintain consistency and avoid gaps in knowledge transfer across such different formats?

Viktoria Soltesz: I think consultancy goes hand in hand with the training. That’s one thing: what you are training, which is more general, which is more descriptive. We do obviously playful exercises to really understand certain methodology and certain processes, but consultancy is going a bit deeper on that. So then we are really unfolding all of those problems and challenges that your specific company deals with at your specific time, right? Because maybe something works for you, but it doesn’t work for someone else. Maybe for you, I don’t know. Setting up a BVI company and a company in Singapore and a company in France, and all the banks are supported. Maybe it works for your setup, your group of companies. But maybe for some other activities, the bank is a bit like, “Hmm, I don’t really like to work with these jurisdictions.” There is no right or wrong answer.

So, when I’m doing the training, I try to figure out, “Okay, what exactly do you need?” And of course, because I’m trying to create an ethical and standardized, transparent payments and banking industry, I feel like it’s my responsibility to also have free webinars and free knowledge which I can share with everyone. So, it’s not really related if you pay, then you get, of course, the certification, and those are the paid courses, and those are the private training that we do as well. But the mission of “let’s talk about the problem, let’s make payment and banking a thing, let’s really understand how banks think” — that’s my mission of putting a lot of free content online where I’m inviting all the experts. We are talking about different subjects, and in this way, we can make this whole payments and banking a little bit less complex, a little bit more user-friendly. And then companies and individuals start to ask all of those questions. We already achieved our goal when people start to talk about it, and really think of payments and banking as a standalone unit in the organization, rather than some forgotten side piece of finance.

Sadaf Abbas: So, I would like to advise that starting up a company in a specific region is a very small step, because we are financial consultants. Sometimes it is basically a very huge roadblock to open a bank account in a specific jurisdiction. You have no idea about it. You have done so much already. Investment in this specific region. So that’s why a good consultant should be in the first step, and that consultant should be in the last step—the last step to have the financial reports as audited reports. So, make that not just the company setup, but to refine the processes as well. So we get the whole financial data very true or fair value. And we know the process. “Okay, how much time will the bank account be open? How much are the payment fees asking? Where will the payment process be happening?” Because each, like in UAE, Viktoria believes, in UAE, the banking channels are very strict. And they have a huge, huge list of, you have no idea, the number of documents we are requiring as per the license, okay?

And the same goes to the other regions as well, either it’s Cyprus, either the [unclear word, possibly “Zone”] or the U.S. They have a long list of, “Okay, if the shareholders are in this specific region, we need to reconsider. If the license is a paid license under these activities, we need to have, you can say, consideration.” So, give me this information as and again, you’re absolutely right. This is not the one thing that the training, the consultation, for if the company goes to the one portion, the same case will happen to the other client. So, we need to understand the situation first of all. What is the scope? What are the requirements? What is the basic problem the client is having? What are his activities? What is the legal structure of the company? From which region? And one more thing I don’t know, Viktoria, but in the UAE it is very important as a corporate service provider, as well as an international service provider, that we need to submit the UBO. We need to submit the KYC for the clients. This is a new role in the EU right now. So this is a very huge responsibility as well. As a consultant, how, as a corporate service provider, how we can help the client, not just to set up a company, but to set up the whole thing, the opening of a bank account, to help him out for the whole jurisdiction and technician processes, and even help to hire the good people in a specific region as well. So, yes, Viktoria, this seems like a very small part, but this has a huge impact on the financials and the company structure as well.

So now, back to section four, Viktoria. It’s very lovely to have a conversation with you because we are the same. Although the different regions are moving money, how banks think, and industry insights, your bestselling book, Moving Money! How Banking Has Clearly Struck a Chord with Professionals Like Us. What inspired you to write it? And what are some of the moments your readers have shared with you after reading it?

Viktoria Soltesz: Yes, actually, this book originally was training material. So, every time I had a new employee joining the company, I had to go back to the beginning: “What is a bank? What is compliance? What was the history?” Just to train them on the subject to be able to do their job, right? So, this training material got bigger and bigger. And at one point, I realized to myself that, “Okay, I’m explaining the same concepts to the clients as well.” So now I’m cutting out paragraphs of the training material, sending it to clients. And then I realized that, “Okay, maybe if I put everything in a book, then it will be much easier to access all of that hidden information and connection between the different parts of payments and banking in an easy-to-read, basically, book.” It is explaining all of those basic jargons and the basic expressions around payments and banking. It starts with the history of banking and how we ended up having a fiat system. Its trust-based banks are safeguarding the financial system. And it goes on different card schemes, risk, technology, integration, data security. So, I tried to cover every part of the industry. Obviously, there is so much that you can write about.

Every chapter has a story which can be related to. So, I had a client who did that, and that was a very common problem because that was the outcome of that. So, this book is really written in an easy-to-understand language. But whoever has any problem with payments and banking — and I think everybody at one point, they will encounter some problem as an individual, but definitely as a company — I would strongly recommend having this book because it can help a lot, and it can save a lot of money and headache in the long term. If you are just understanding the basics, you are already so far off from your competition.

Sadaf Abbas: Absolutely. So, in my point of view, after reading that book, the basic knowledge of how the bank is working, how the money is moving from one bank to another bank, and what type of permission each bank is asking from each bank, because I saw personally, due to my experience, that the banking communication is totally different with the company-to-company information. And sometimes it happens that the payment is stuck and the companies don’t know if the banking channel is communicating with each other, and when the banks are from different regions, the communication is also more difficult due to the time zones and everything and the banking hours. So, as a consultant here, we are basically trying to help and guide the client. “Okay, if you are making such invoices, then you need to have information from the banks as well. Okay, maybe… maybe in the future you will be asked, and you should be prepared for this information.” So, the time gap of the payments will not be reluctant due to this non-awareness situation. So, I believe that yes, perfectly. And all professions who are related to the finance and accountancy field, they need to basically read that book so they can have them…

Viktoria Soltesz: That there is also a, and I think, sorry to cut you, but there is also a very important part that no one seemed to talk about: that the regulation is not consistent between jurisdictions. So, just because I will be able to open a bank account with whatever documents in Singapore, it doesn’t mean that I can do the same in Germany. I can do the same in America. So, there are different kinds of banks, and even within the jurisdiction, banks are evaluating, onboarding, and risk on a very subjective level. So, people still really don’t understand that. “How come that on Monday my application was accepted, and on Tuesday they rejected me? Why?” It could be down to the human element. Maybe the person who is evaluating you was on a holiday, right? And now a different person came along, or just the bank’s internal risk appetite has changed, as it’s changing very quickly. So, just by understanding how banks are thinking and building, just by that basic knowledge, you can actually start to really understand what are the documents that you need to submit, why the bank is asking certain questions, how to explain your activity to the bank, and what are the challenges that you will face in the long term with sending money abroad, and overall, what is the reason for this complexity? So, I’m very happy that you mentioned that because this is the basis of everything: that no two banks are the same, and it’s our responsibility as users to make sure that we understand what is the risk with different banks and what are the outcomes that we can get with the different banks, different financial products.

Sadaf Abbas: I don’t want to mention the name of the bank, that is the USA. Banks have certain limitation liabilities with the other UAE banks, so we know internally that, “Okay, if you have a certain bank account in the U.S. or Germany, UAE, so you should need to connect with this bank.” Otherwise, this is a very huge, sometimes a problem as a CFO with the other companies as well. “Okay, then we are coming to place and then guiding. Okay, the relationship with this bank is not compatible with the regulations. So you need to work with these kinds of banks in your regions as well.” So you can have a very smooth kind of processes system, and then don’t ask each and everything. You have a very long list of requirements. Then afterwards, if they were fulfilled, you didn’t fulfill the things in the first stage, basically.

So, coming to your personal life, Viktoria, with such a dynamic, demanding career, how do you personally recharge? What are some of the things you enjoy doing outside of work to maintain that balance, especially living in beautiful Limassol, Texas?

Viktoria Soltesz: But I think when you are an expert in a field and you’re running companies, you have to be obsessed with what you do. So, you have to be in love with everything that you do. So, even in my free time, I’m trying to catch up with the industry news. I try to go to different conferences, because then I talk to people that are interesting to me about subjects that I like, and that’s where I really feel that I belong. And this is my environment. So, I like to always keep up with the latest, and thankfully now with the technology and the interconnectedness of the world, I can travel to different places, visit clients, go to conferences, but also enjoy a bit of that travel as well. So, that’s how I’m balancing everything. But, as I said, if you’re an entrepreneur, if you are running multiple companies, there is no such thing as free time. But it’s okay because that’s what you like to do, and that’s what charges you to move ahead as well.

Sadaf Abbas: Perfect. I totally agree with you that if you, if you have a passion for your work, you have no idea you can work literally 24 hours, seven days a week. But of course, work-life balance is very important. I have three kids. So it’s not just I really love my work, but I also need to give my time to my kids as a mother. So it’s really very difficult sometimes to balance the work between business and the professional person, life, and being a mother is a really huge responsibility, Viktoria, sometimes. So to speak, onto the schedule and then go back and play the role as a mother in the family. So yes, but really we love our work, and we are very passionate about it. Perfectly. So, given your extensive experience, what major shifts do you see on the horizon in the global payments and banking industry over the next five to ten years? All right. So it either goes two ways, in my opinion.

Viktoria Soltesz: Banking and payment is always going to be complex, in the same way as taxation is never going to be harmonized. There are always going to be jurisdictions which are more friendly towards new business and always going to be an overregulated environment. So, companies are always going to shift around. Now we are in the online sphere; it’s easier than ever to move somewhere, start a company, and enjoy the benefits. But that means that payments and banking are also going to be more and more complex. International transfers are evaluated differently from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Fintech is evolving. Technology is evolving daily. We now have QR codes, mobile payment, open banking, instant payment. Good luck for an entrepreneur to figure out which one is the best. So, it is only getting more and more complex, which is great for me as an accountant, obviously, and the expert and the tax advisor to help those companies, because more and more work for us, of course. But on the larger scheme of things, companies are more and more lost nowadays. That’s what I see. They don’t really understand why the funds are being blocked and banks are rejecting them, and it’s getting worse. So, that’s why I’m feeling that it’s either going that way or we have AI. AI is figuring out everything. Then a lot of processes…

Sadaf Abbas: But Viktoria, but as I, I really use AI in terms of [unclear word, possibly “better”], but I saw that the case-to-case is different. And when the case-to-case is different, how much input you can provide and how much command can provide the AI. Again, then due diligence, because this is a decision-making thing and the whole setup, the legal structure setup, is going to happen with these kinds of channels. So, I believe that still, yes, AI is a very good resource to get the information, but to compile it and do the due diligence with the expertise of experience and knowledge. Knowledge, of course, AI also has. What about experience as well? So I saw many cases over here that they got the information from… even our client is very educated now. Viktoria is now in the fingerprints again. Get the information on how to use that information. This is a big thing. So…

Viktoria Soltesz: Yeah.

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah, totally. So now, going back to the wrap-up area, Viktoria. So this has been such an enlightening conversation. And seriously, I really would like to do one more thing. What kind of advice can you provide to your users, your author, sorry, the readers, and your professional, and your potential clients? So what do you think? What advice can you provide easily at this stage right now?

Viktoria Soltesz: It costs nothing to get it right at the beginning. Work with the right professionals. Get the advice, and don’t just rely on gut feelings, mainly when it comes to company incorporation and payments and banking. Get the experts and get the right setup right at the beginning because it doesn’t cost a lot at the beginning to get it right, but it can cost a lot not to have it later. I have seen so many startup companies who are cutting corners, charging the answer. Instead of using legal experts, trying to figure out, asking around, “Hey, what works for you, what not?” It always ends up in a disaster, mainly when it comes to money and flow of funds. Do yourself a favor, get things right at the beginning because correcting mistakes when your company is at the scale-up stage, instead of being a startup, and clients are coming on your website, and you’ve got hundreds, thousands of payment requests in an hour, you will have a headache, you will lose them, and you will pay so much more than you would have done at the beginning to get the system set up right. So, that’s my biggest advice, because it can save basically your whole company from not doing the right thing, and it just snowballs into something huge.

Sadaf Abbas: What I feel right now, in this era where we are, the information is at our fingertips. So every single, even the larger, large-scale companies are also thinking to cut the cost. I totally agree. This is the impression point, and it’s very difficult to sustain in this era. It’s not just one industry, believe me, Viktoria, every region of the whole UAE, every single city, country is affected by any other course of action, whatever the conditional or the political. The main thing is that, please connect with the person directly, with a good consultant, and have one-to-one conversations. Having a one-to-one meeting does not cost you, but it will save your time as well. It will, you know, give you good, and in the first step, and if you have good advice, later on, you will, you can say, “Thank us.” Okay, and of course, we are not saying we are very humble and philanthropic, but yes, we will give you good advice with the perfect way to level with the process of the phases. Not just, “Okay, our work is done,” not before we are asking these things, but everything is very cut and edge here, transparent under the code of ethics, and as soon as possible. We, not as a consultant, but you also, when you are consulting, you have double responsibility. You need to think for the client as much as possible as a term of the proper service provider, as well for the authority as well. Means we have double responsibility as to help the client simultaneously to answer the authorities as well, especially in UAE. So, Viktoria, it is a huge responsibility together as a profession. So…

Viktoria Soltesz: The way that companies think, it’s automatically that when I have a company, of course I need a marketing plan. Of course you do. Of course I need a sales plan. Of course you do. But why don’t you have a plan for taxation? Why don’t you have a plan for money, banking, and payment? So, it is obvious now we are talking about it. But when you start your company, you think, “Oh, wow! This is what it is, and I have to accept it.” No, your responsibility is to make sure that everything is handled by a professional.

Sadaf Abbas: Be yes.

Viktoria Soltesz: Exactly.

Sadaf Abbas: Professional way, and if the payment process method is not, you can say, strong proof, of course you will face the KYC. Reporting, you will have transaction reporting. You need to answer not just the internal authority, but external authority due to the external circumstances. Each and every banking system is not like traditional banking. Now every banking system has its own system now, which is related to the government authorities directly. So, this is now we are moving to the international banking system. There is also very complex as well as the regions as per the activities, and something like that, and the UBO, Ultimate Beneficial Owner, is also very important to see the things. So, thank you, that’s it for today’s episode for the Business Catalyst Podcast. A huge thank you again to Viktoria for joining us and offering such powerful insight. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with your network, and until next time, stay curious and keep building the future of finance. Thank you.

Viktoria Soltesz: Thank you so much.