Card network integration

The Pismo platform can handle Visa, Mastercard, or private label issuing of credit, debit, and prepaid cards. Pismo acts as a transaction processor that integrates with the card networks and the card issuers and guarantees the integrity of card network transactions. The Pismo native-cloud platform can handle up to 15,000 authorizations/transactions per second for multiple accounts.

Pismo processes all event-dependent functions asynchronously so your customers can see everything changing in real time in their apps. This means all impacts to your accounting, regulatory reports, and treasury also happen in real time.

For details on the various suported card networks, refer to card networks Pismo supports.

Full versus Zero balance integration

The Pismo platform supports two card network integration models:

Full balance integration - Pismo performs all the necessary card and account validations to authorize or reject a transaction. In addition, the Pismo platform performs all the processing that controls the balance for an account in its life cycle, hence the name Full balance.

Zero balance integration - Pismo performs some card validations. It also integrates with a card issuer that performs the necessary account validations to authorize or reject a transaction. In this model, the issuer does their own limit/fraud checks, and account management.

For more information, refer to Full balance versus Zero balance integration. This article details the features that come with each option.

Full versus Zero balance workflow

The two integration models have slightly different workflows when interacting with the networks and Pismo. For details on these workflows, refer to Full and Zero balance transaction workflows.

Data and reporting

The workflows for the two models generate a number of events, the data these events generate provide you with comprehensive information for reporting and analytics. Event notifications and data can be delivered in real-time (streaming event delivery) or periodically via batch files. For more details on this and how to set up event notification delivery, refer to Data and reporting overview.

To learn about events specific to card network integration, refer to Authorization events.

Card network authorizations and transactions

The Pismo platform supports the following card network authorization/transaction types:

• Purchase
• International purchase
• Installments without interest
• Installments with interest
• Withdrawal
• International withdrawal
• Purchase return
• Payment transaction