Payment routing is a dynamic, real-time feature that directs payments to the most optimal payment processor, acquirer, or gateway. This process is based on various factors, such as issuer preferences, transaction amount, and geographical location.

For global businesses, especially in Guide
Explore Solidgate subscriptions for seamless recurring customer payments. subscription models, payment routing is crucial. It mitigates the risks of failed payments, fraud, and region-specific challenges.

For example, U.S. merchants may experience high decline rates when processing payments in Latin America or the EU due to stricter bank policies. Routing improves these approval rates by routing transactions to the most reliable processors, considering regional conditions.

Channel routing flow

This process begins when you submit an order and provide key parameters. Solidgate uses these parameters to evaluate the best path through a set of predefined rules with key steps. Additionally, Solidgate enriches the request with card BIN data from its services. For example, by adding information about the issuer bank or the issuer’s country to improve decision-making during the routing process.

If no suitable processing route is found or if there are issues, such as inactive MIDs, the transaction is routed to a Default route

Channel routing components

The key components are:

• Route
  Represent top-level configuration with all payment parameters.
• Split
  Distribute payment traffic across multiple processors or MIDs using specified percentage ratios.
• Cascade
  Define steps to retry failed payments through alternative processors.
• Segment
  Group sets of specific configurations.

Thus, routing and segments focus on primary routing and processing, while splits and cascades manage the distribution and re-processing of transactions to increase their success rate.

Route

A payment routing is an essential part of an efficient and scalable payment infrastructure. It enhances both the customer experience and revenue by ensuring higher success rates and reduced operational overhead with key parameters:

Route ID	A unique identifier assigned to each route.
Payment method	Specifies the type of payment being processed.
Traffic source	The source of the payment traffic, helping track and categorize where the payment originated.
External MPI	Enables 3DS authentication through an external Merchant Plug-In, allowing control of the auth flow and passing necessary Guide Strengthen payment safety with 3D Secure support for transactions. MPI data.
Force 3DS	Specifies whether Guide Strengthen payment safety with 3D Secure support for transactions. 3DS authentication is required, enabling fraud prevention.
Google Pay	A payment method allowing transactions through Google’s digital wallet.
PAN only	A setting indicating whether only the Guide Understand Google Pay’s protection for safer transactions. PAN is available for processing.
Website	The merchant's website or platform through which the payment was initiated.
Card number details	Card brand: A list of accepted card brands for processing. Card type: Specific type of card used. Country: The country where the transaction is being processed. Country BIN: List of countries associated with the BIN. Bank: List of accepted banks for processing. BIN pattern: Regular expression to match the BIN of the card.
Currency	Defines the currency used for the transaction.
Amount (USD)	The payment amount is converted to USD to evaluate the payment routing and transaction flow.

Segment

A segment is the final processing point for a payment route. Each segment corresponds to a payment attempt in the route. Identifiers for the payment are:

Segment ID	A unique identifier assigned to each segment.
Bank MID	The merchant identifier (MID) used by the bank to process the payment.
Connector	The connection point to the payment processor or gateway used to handle the transaction.
PSP	The payment service provider responsible for processing the transaction.
Descriptor	The transaction description shown on the customer’s statement.
Protocol	The 3DS authentication protocol used for the transaction.
Processing method	Specifies the type of payment being processed.

Stop error codes prevent transactions from proceeding to the next step. These errors indicate fundamental issues with the card, account, or transaction that cannot be resolved by routing to an alternative processor.

Attempting retries would result in the same failure regardless of the payment gateway used, while unnecessarily increasing processing costs and delaying the final response to the customer.

View channel routing

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