4. Transaction

This is where the payments start…. Different payment methods have different transactions flows and some of the payment methods can have different flavours of flows.

1. Cards:

Here is the simple card flow

Various flavours of card transaction:

• If Acquiring Bank and Issuing Bank are same then flow can skip the stage 3 & Such flow is called On-Us transaction
• If acquiring bank and issuing bank are different then transaction is done with above flow i.e. Off-Us flow
• Direct OTP: Instead of redirection, transaction has two legs (a) merchant triggers API to ACS to generate OTP for the card (b) Customer receives the OTP on registered number © OTP is captured on merchant’s site/app (d) merchant triggers second API to ACS to validate the OTP

• · DC and ATM Flow: For Debit cards of selected banks, instead of OTP or 3DS password, customer can complete transaction with ATM PIN. Customer is redirected to FSS hosted page to enter ATM PIN

2. Net-banking Transaction

Customer is redirected to bank’s online net-banking page to authenticate herself and complete the transactions. Different banks have different ways to validate the user.

E.g. ICICI Bank: Along with Customer Id and password stage, customer may be asked to enter grid number or OTP. In case of HDFC, you may be posed with security questions.

Notes on Net-banking :

• For repeat users the banks remove those additional checks (grid, OTP, security questions)
• These pages are different that your regular net-banking pages (they both look same but are different URL… try yourself and check)

Net-Banking TPV Flow:

TPV (Third Party Validation) integration is unique flow where customer’s bank account is validated during transaction.

In Case of Mutual Fund and Brokerage Merchants, it is mandatory for user to make payment from registered account only. (A/C that is declared during opening of MF/Brokerage account). If customer tries to make payment with other that registered account then such transaction should be failed.

Merchant to send the A/C number as part of transaction parameter and issuer will check if transaction is done with same A/C number or not.

3. Wallets:

A customer is redirected to wallet’s page where customer validates the credentials and completes the transaction.

Wallets also provide link and pay flow, where user can link the wallet with one time validation and then wallet balance will be shown on merchant’s page and wallet can be debited with single click.

4. Payment Containers

Containers are something which are combine wallet, cards, UPI under one user account. Customer can select the preferred payment method to complete the transaction

In ‘transaction’ leg both customer and merchant will know whether transaction is successful or failed.

There is possibility that transaction doesn’t come with definite status (Success or fail) and transaction goes into pending. In such cases, aggregator will update its system (pull the latest status from bank) and then push to merchant or merchant can pull the latest status. (Called as status reconciliation).

Instant Gratification:

A definite transaction status (in real time or near real time) is important as both merchant and customer can take appropriate actions based on the status.

There are cases where a finite status after the stipulated time period is no use for merchant.

Example: Airline has to know that status is successful (to issue ticket) or failed (to release inventory back). Airline cannot wait long time as rates will fluctuate (so can’t lock-in seat) and need to handle picked customer.

To manage such situation, merchant can always ignore status that comes after stipulated time period (if status is failed then good enough, if status is success then trigger auto-refund)

First thing is done, ‘transaction’… now we know the status and then comes the ‘money’… << Next Chapter>>