Cardflo for Businesses scaling internationally.
Cardflo empowers businesses scaling internationally by providing a unified platform for global payment processing. We offer access to a diverse network of acquirers and local payment methods, simplifying cross-border operations and optimising authorization rates.
Our solutions support seamless expansion into new markets.
- Industry
- Businesses scaling internationally
- Category
- High-risk
- Cardflo support
- Yes
The overview
Cross-border commerce necessitates an infrastructure capable of handling fragmented regional requirements and varying regulatory oversight. When a merchant expands beyond their domestic territory, they interface with diverse issuer behaviours, local currency fluctuations, and distinct legal frameworks such as PSD2 in the European Economic Area.
International scaling involves managing multiple Merchant Identification Numbers across various regions to avoid the high costs and low authorisation rates typically associated with non-local acquiring.
The payments stack for global operations requires an orchestration layer that can route transactions to domestic acquirers, use local payment methods to suit regional preferences, and manage complex settlement cycles.
Failure to localise the payment experience often results in higher decline rates due to issuer risk filters flagging foreign transactions. By decentralising the acquiring strategy, businesses can minimise interchange costs and reduce the frequency of cross-border fees levied by the card schemes.
How it works
Local Acquirer Selection
The system identifies the geographic origin of the cardholder's Bank Identification Number to determine the most efficient routing path. By directing the transaction to an acquirer within the same region as the issuer, the merchant maintains a domestic profile.
This process typically improves approval rates and reduces fees associated with international processing.
Regional Payment Method Integration
Expansion requires supporting Alternative Payment Methods that dominate specific markets, such as bank redirects, digital wallets, or local card schemes. The gateway presents the relevant options based on the user's location, ensuring the checkout experience matches local standards.
This reduces friction at the final stage of the consumer purchase journey.
Currency Conversion and Settlement
Transaction payloads are processed using multi-currency capabilities, allowing customers to pay in their local denomination while the merchant receives settlement in their preferred currency.
This involves managing real-time foreign exchange rates and ensuring that the settlement reports accurately reflect the converted amounts minus relevant scheme and interchange fees.
Dynamic 3DS and SCA Compliance
The platform applies Strong Customer Authentication logic based on the regional legal requirements, such as the specific mandates under PSD2 in Europe.
By triggers 3DS only when necessary or when it improves the chance of authorisation, the merchant balances regulatory compliance with the need for high conversion.
Why it matters
Optimising Authorisation Success Rates
Issuers are statistically more likely to decline transactions originating from foreign Merchant Identification Numbers due to increased fraud risk profiles. By utilising domestic acquiring in each expansion territory, businesses can significantly reduce these soft declines.
This localised approach ensures that transaction data looks familiar to the issuing bank, leading to more consistent authorisation outcomes and more predictable cash flow across different continents.
Reducing Cross-Border Fee Exposure
Card schemes like Visa and Mastercard apply additional surcharges for transactions that cross international borders. These fees can erode margins on high-volume international sales.
Implementing a multi-acquirer strategy allows for the internalisation of these transactions within regional boundaries. Consequently, the merchant avoids the heavy surcharges typically applied to inter-regional traffic, reflecting a direct improvement in the net settlement amount received for each unit sold.
Regulatory notes
Regional Compliance Frameworks
Operating across borders requires adherence to differing regulatory regimes such as PSD2 in Europe, which mandates SCA for most electronic payments. Merchants must also navigate varying Data Residency requirements and local consumer protection laws.
In some jurisdictions, the lack of a local legal entity may restrict access to domestic acquiring, forcing a reliance on less efficient cross-border processing models until a local presence is established.
Card Scheme Cross-Border Rules
Visa and Mastercard maintain strict rules regarding where a transaction is authorised relative to where the merchant is legally domiciled. Attempting to use a domestic MID for transactions in a different region without proper licensing or setup can lead to scheme fines or account closures.
Compliance with these 'Global Acquiring' rules is essential for maintaining a stable long-term processing environment during aggressive international growth stages.
Use cases
Subscription Services Expanding to Europe
A software company based in North America targets European users. By adopting a local acquirer and implementing SCA-compliant flows, they avoid the high decline rates common with non-domestic recurring payments and comply with EBA requirements.
E-commerce Retailers Entering Asia-Pacific
A retail brand utilises local digital wallets and bank transfer methods popular in South East Asia. This strategy caters to card-light populations, ensuring that the lack of a credit card does not prevent a successful transaction.
Global Digital Content Providers
Providers of digital media use dynamic routing to switch between acquirers if a specific regional gateway experiences downtime or performance degradation. This redundancy is critical for maintaining 24/7 global availability during peak promotional periods.
By the numbers
This range represents the typical uplift seen when switching from cross-border to domestic acquiring for international card transactions.
Industry averages suggest that avoiding cross-border scheme fees and using domestic interchange can reduce total processing costs by this margin.
Merchants in specific markets often report this level of volume increase after offering the top three local alternative payment methods.
Related terms
Book a scoping call to see how Cardflo would set you up.
What's included.
- Connect to multiple domestic acquirers through a single unified API for global market reach.
- Implement Merchant Identification Numbers in diverse jurisdictions to facilitate localised card processing and settlement.
- Support a wide range of Alternative Payment Methods specific to European, Asian, and Latin American markets.
- Automate currency conversion and multi-currency settlement to simplify international accounting and treasury functions.
- Apply Dynamic 3DS logic to ensure compliance with regional mandates like PSD2 and PSD3 regulations.
- Utilise intelligent routing to send transactions to the acquirer with the highest regional performance metrics.
- Centralise cross-border transaction data into a single reporting interface for comprehensive global financial analysis.
- Manage PCI-DSS compliance requirements across different regions through secure tokenisation and vaulted payment data.
- Optimise interchange costs by avoiding inter-regional fee structures through domestic acquiring partnerships and routing.
- Reduce the impact of currency volatility by settling in local currencies where business entities are established.
Talk to an acquiring specialist about your MID setup.
Common questions.
What is the primary benefit of using a local acquirer for international transactions?
Using a local acquirer allows a transaction to be processed as a domestic payment rather than a cross-border one. Issuing banks often apply stricter fraud filters to international requests, leading to higher decline rates.
By routing through a local acquirer in the same region as the cardholder, the transaction appears more trustworthy to the issuer.
This typically results in higher authorisation rates and lower processing fees, as domestic interchange rates and scheme fees are generally lower than their inter-regional counterparts.
How does multi-currency processing affect the settlement process for merchants?
Multi-currency processing allows the consumer to see prices and pay in their native currency, which improves checkout conversion. For the merchant, the payment processor or gateway manages the foreign exchange.
Settlement can occur in the merchant's base currency or, if they have a local bank account, in the processing currency.
This helps businesses manage their FX exposure, although merchants must be aware of the conversion margins and fees applied by the processor or acquirer during the settlement cycle.
What regulatory hurdles should be considered when scaling into the EU?
The most significant hurdle is the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), specifically the requirement for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). Merchants must ensure their payment flow supports 3D Secure 2 to verify the identity of the cardholder for most transactions.
Failure to provide the required authentication data usually results in immediate declines by European issuers. Additionally, merchants must ensure they are compliant with GDPR regarding the handling and storage of European citizen payment and personal data.
Can a single Merchant Identification Number be used for all global transactions?
While technically possible through some global aggregators, using a single MID for all international traffic is often inefficient. Transactions will be flagged as cross-border, incurring higher fees and lower approval rates.
For true scale, it is advisable to have multiple MIDs tied to different regional acquirers. This allows for better redundancy, localised cost structures, and improved relationships with regional issuing banks that may have specific preferences for how transaction data is formatted.
What is the role of Alternative Payment Methods in international expansion?
In many markets, credit and debit cards are not the primary payment method. For instance, in certain European and Asian countries, bank transfers, e-wallets, and local card schemes have higher penetration.
To successfully scale, a merchant must integrate these APMs. If a customer cannot use their preferred local method, the likelihood of cart abandonment increases significantly.
A robust international strategy includes a mix of global card brands and the dominant local payment types.
How does the Merchant Category Code impact international processing?
The Merchant Category Code (MCC) is used by card schemes and issuers to categorise the type of business and assess risk. Some MCCs are considered high-risk globally, while others may face specific scrutiny in certain jurisdictions.
When scaling internationally, it is vital to ensure that the MCC assigned by the acquirer accurately reflects the business activity to avoid miscategorisation, which can lead to increased declines or even the termination of the merchant account.
Ready for velocity?
Tell us about your business. We'll match you with the right acquiring partners and the right route, typically inside a week.