Approval rate has become the most critical performance metric for Payment Managers, yet the way the role is structured has not kept pace with its growing impact on revenue, according to new research by Corefy, the unified payment operating system.The finding comes from The State of the Payment Manager Role 2026, Corefy’s study of 112 job descriptions across 15+ countries and 19 industries, complemented by expert commentary from Ecommpay, NuxGame, Cryptopay, Fintech Wrap Up, CoinsPaid, ATTRUS, GR8 Tech, TODA Pay, and Pay Strategy Global to connect market data with real-world payment team experience.Across the dataset, approval rate accounts for 14.1% of all KPI mentions, making it the most frequently cited metric by a significant margin. It ranks ahead of payment success rate and processing cost (both at 6.7%), followed by chargeback rate (5.9%) and conversion rate (4.4%). The concentration of KPIs around transaction-stage performance shows that companies increasingly anchor payment leadership in measurable impact on acceptance, cost, and revenue outcomes.This shift reflects a broader change in how payment performance is understood at the business level.“In the past year, approval rates have become one of the critical battlegrounds for growth, moving from a background metric to a competitive edge, as this report confirms,” said Roy Blokker, Head of Commercial at Ecommpay. “Our recent study found that failed or declined payments were the main cause of lost customers today, so it is critical for merchants to track approval rates with the same urgency as conversion rates. However, merchants should not just track overall approval rates; they should combine real-time monitoring with clear, actionable dashboards. Only then can businesses move from reactive reporting to proactive optimisation, uncovering and repairing the hidden friction points that quietly erode revenue.”At the same time, the research highlights a structural gap between how Payment Managers are measured and how their roles are defined. 55% of job descriptions remain operationally framed, using language such as ‘manage’, ‘monitor’, and ‘coordinate’, while only a minority reflect the level of ownership required to influence approval rates and related performance metrics.“Approval rate is the right metric to focus on,” said Denys Kyrychenko, Co-founder & CEO at Corefy. “But many companies still treat it as something to monitor, not something to actively manage. If Payment Managers are measured on approval rate, they need the tools and authority to influence routing, retries, and provider performance. Otherwise, accountability and control don’t match.”NoYesPayments13 May, 2026