Consumers in shops all around the country expect payments to work as they should every time. They demand instant transactions, often blissfully unaware of the complexity that lies beneath. That is the job of a good payments service provider.
A good payment provider keeps the technical complexity invisible while delivering service inside the 130-millisecond benchmark. A decade ago, two or three seconds were considered acceptable. Today, anything more than half a second causes customers to become frustrated. Payment providers serve other businesses, and in our case, we serve retailers.
In fact, we have settled more than R10 trillion in payments. This includes card payments for two-thirds of JSE-listed retailers. But it also means we serve the customers of our customers. Millions of people expect and demand near-instant payments that work as they should every time.
The complexity behind the scenes
While the service is designed to be invisible, it remains highly complex. More happens than simply tapping a card or hovering a smartphone over a payment device.
An entire ecosystem of steps takes place. Every step must occur so quickly that the wait feels almost imperceptible to the customer. This is all inside the 130-millisecond benchmark. Describing the “anatomy of a payment”, I provide a simple analogy for a complex process. Those 130 milliseconds encompass the entire anatomy of a payment.
In layman’s terms, imagine an onion. Each layer, from the outermost to the core, is critical. These layers ensure the merchant’s customer walks away happy. Consequently, this keeps the merchant satisfied as well.
The layers include legitimising the card and user the moment they interact with the till. They also cover world-standard encryption and security for data travelling over the internet, authorisation and fraud checks and clearing and settlement between the customer’s bank and the retailer’s bank. All of this is underpinned by extensive compliance and ongoing certification.
The payment process in action
The steps within these layers include the customer tapping, swiping or inserting at the terminal. The terminal sends transaction data through the payment switch. That switch routes the encrypted request to the customer’s bank, called the issuing bank.
The issuing bank checks for funds and runs fraud and security checks. It then sends an approval or decline response back to the payment switch. The switch returns the response to the terminal. If declined, the transaction ends with a decline code. If approved, the transaction details are sent to the retailer’s bank, called the acquiring bank, for clearing and settlement.
Choosing reliability in milliseconds
So, in a very short amount of time, ideally within those 130 milliseconds, many complicated steps occur. They all form part of the ‘onion’ analogy. These steps happen in layers. The core of the onion ensures all these steps occur within a payment card industry data security standard (PCI DSS)-certified environment. This global security standard requires annual, intensive audits covering people, processes and technology. Additional 
certifications, such as those for devices and ongoing validation, are also required.
Continuous compliance underpins trust and allows the payment ecosystem to function securely inside the 130-millisecond benchmark.
When this process fails, the customer becomes frustrated. The merchant is unhappy, and the payment service provider’s reputation suffers. Therefore, retailers must carefully consider the partner they choose when planning their payments. Much can go well, but equally, much can go wrong in just milliseconds.
Rory Bosman | Chief Sales & Marketing Officer | Ecentric Payment Systems | mail me |
