Payment Explorer

Card payment

A €100 card payment (e.g. Visa, Mastercard, Cartes Bancaires, American Express): authorization through the scheme, then clearing and settlement — not pacs rails.

Scheme Card payment

Read the numbered story first. The switches change the situation. When a step is clear, open a technical trace to see the messages banks send.

Payer country

Where the payer’s account is. Cut-off times and the usual network can change.

How it ends

The money arrives, the other bank refuses, nobody answers in time, or a bank later asks to reverse a credit (recall).

Actor labels

Plain names (Payer / Beneficiary), ops shorthand (Orig / Bene), or ISO account sides (Dbtr / Cdtr). On SDD the creditor is Orig.

What this country changes for the payer’s bank.

Cut-off

SCT batch cut-offs follow your bank’s STEP2 submission window (often late afternoon on TARGET days). Instant is 24/7.

Reachability

Euro SCT / SCT Inst reachability is near-universal in SEPA. French ASPSPs are widely on TIPS and/or RT1.

Local notes

STET PSD2 API is common for PISP initiation in France; clearing remains EPC ISO 20022.

  1. 01

    Payer→Merchant

    €100t+0

    The payer presents a card at checkout for €100.

    Card present / e-com authorization request

  2. 02

    Merchant→Acquirer

    The merchant’s acquirer forwards the authorization.

    Acquirer → scheme authorization

  3. 03

    Acquirer→Scheme

    The card scheme routes to the issuer bank.

    Scheme switch / network authorization

  4. 04

    Scheme→Payer’s bank

    The issuer approves and holds €100.

    Issuer auth response (approve / decline)

  5. 05

    Acquirer→Scheme

    D or D+1

    Later, clearing files move the transaction for settlement.

    Clearing batch (not ISO 20022 pacs)

  6. 06

    Scheme→Beneficiary’s bank

    Settlement credits the merchant side.

    Scheme settlement to acquirer / merchant bank

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