A typical payment transaction passes through one or more switching platforms from acquirer to network and on to an issuer’s switching application. The switching systems drive transactions from initiation to destination. They are the cogs in the payments machine that never stop turning. These switches process billions of ATM and POS transactions in milliseconds every day. For example, Mastercard drives a network response time that averages 140 milliseconds per transaction, to process over 22 billion Mastercard branded transactions per year.
With today's polymorphic payments landscape there is a real demand for smarter, more efficient payments systems - a necessity for the volumes being handled. The capability, reliability and efficiency of the payment switches are crucial in delivering today’s customer expectations.
As a result, the switching applications market is witnessing stiff competition.
Authentic by NCR
Authentic is an agile, high-performance open development platform for switching and authorising payment transactions used by issuers, acquirers, payment service providers, ISOs and merchants. Authentic can be deployed as a platform-independent, high-performance switch to route transactions between multiple acquirers, issuers, networks and other switches. It is benchmarked at 10,000 transactions per second.
BASE24, UP BASE24-eps and Postilion by ACI Worldwide:
BASE24 runs on HP’s NonStop server, providing a robust, high-performance, fault-tolerant solution for processing consumer payment transactions. It provides everything from ATM device driving and POS channel management to transaction routing and authorization. Other capabilities include host and interchange interfaces, settlement, management reporting, network control and stored value functionality. UP BASE24-eps, is the next-generation payment switch. It offers better flexibility, improved risk management and many other improved features.
Postilion is a fully integrated suite of products for financial institutions and processors for acquiring, routing and authorising payments, as well as, managing the card issuance and merchant acquiring side of the business.
SmartVista by BPC group
BPC’s SmartVista platform manages the entire payments lifecycle, with components designed to work and grow together: high-performance authorisation switching and routing, full ATM and POS management, comprehensive card management, advanced fraud prevention, loyalty program management, card personalisation and production, billing and merchant management and integrated Internet and mobile banking. SmartVista’s broad range of capabilities effectively support and manage payments across all channels, including Internet and mobile applications.
Tranzware by CompassPlus
Tranzware is a high-performance scalable multi-card processing solution enables efficient electronic funds transfer, inter-network switching and the handling of an unlimited number of devices and delivery channels. The system was specifically designed to deliver great flexibility and options for system expansion unrestricted by hardware, operating system, networks and host systems, financial products, types of transactions, devices and delivery channels.
IST/Switch, Cortex by FIS
IST/Switch is an open platform high-performance credit and debit processing switch. As a front-end processor that handles unlimited devices, networks and host systems, IST/Switch manages ATM and POS networks of any size, electronic funds transfer and inter-network switching. It provides batch and online network interfaces required to process credit/debit transactions through all the major card associations and networks, including Visa, MasterCard, Interac, American Express, Diners etc.
Still LOT more switching products in the market. This is just high level overview of few.
