[elithrar]

> What actually prevents Stripe from just being international?

The need to partner with a local bank to provide merchant services/accounts. i.e. Pin Payments partners with NAB in Australia, with NAB setting up an "invisible to the user" merchant account. It's part of their model - you just deal with them, not the bank, not anybody else.

[benologist]

I get that's what they do but why do they need to do that for each individual country instead of just running everything through their own bank + only subject to their own state/federal regulations?