A payment service provider moves money. A Merchant of Record sells. The difference decides who carries risk, disputes and busywork.
The one-line difference
With a PSP, you are the seller: the money moves through their rails, but the transaction — and everything attached to it — is legally yours. With a Merchant of Record, the MoR is the seller: your customer buys from them, and they buy from you.
What lands on whose desk
Under a PSP, chargebacks arrive addressed to you, fraud losses net against your balance, and refund policy enforcement is your operational problem. Under an MoR, the seller of record answers every dispute, carries transaction risk, and runs refunds — you see outcomes, not casework.
The trade is control for operations: a PSP gives you every knob and every obligation; an MoR gives you the outcomes with the payment ops handled. For most digital product companies the knobs were never the point.
When each model fits
If payments are your product — marketplaces, fintechs — you probably want PSP-level control. If payments are the thing between your product and revenue, an MoR removes an entire category of work. Morpe is built for the second group.