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Platform overview

Get to know the system's core features and architecture

Banking.Live is a flexible, in-cloud, issuer-side payment processing engine. It provides a real-time solution for card lifecycle management combined with authorization processing, built on next-generation technology. Banking.Live is for banks, challengers, card issuers, card programme managers, and third-party Fintech vendors. The platform delivers a powerful rules-based engine, with triple-layer PCI security for processing card transactions.



Banking.Live supports both physical and virtual debit, credit, and prepaid card solutions. It allows you, as a Paymentology client, to participate in the transaction authorization process and to make approve or decline decisions. The system prioritizes data isolation techniques to ensure cardholder data is secure. There are three main functional parts to Banking.Live:

  1. Authorization processing
  2. API interface
  3. Clearing and settlements processing
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For a detailed explanation of how a payment transaction is processed end-to-end, see Authorization, Clearing, and Settlement.

The key features of Banking.Live are:

Transaction interface

Transaction message data

Through Banking.Live, you can make data-driven decisions with full transparency.

  • Full scheme messages parsed with spend analytics
  • Ability to actively or passively participate in the authorization process
  • Enriched authorization data on which to base your approve or decline decision
  • Deep insights into consumer behaviour and trends
  • Historical look-up mid-spend enabling accurate decision making
  • Automated back-office reconciliation techniques
  • Real-time transaction stream for you to consume and store your own data
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To read more about the Framework for Authorisation and Settlement Transmission (FAST), see FAST transaction interface.

RESTful API-driven architecture

API functionality

Banking.Live is built using API technology to create flexibility for you.

  • Access to any piece of data
    • anytime
    • over any time period
    • across cards, cardholders, and card programmes
  • Automated back-office reconciliation, replacing the traditional manual process
  • Automated chargeback processes*
  • Increasing back-office efficiency; decreasing OPEX
  • Empowering cardholders to resolve their own queries
  • Eliminating query tickets
  • Rapid deployment; you can quickly test product features
  • Decreased second-line fraud disputes
  • Empowering your financial crime team to test new rule sets
  • Data protection with the maker or checker of fraud rules
  • Supporting 2FA
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* Available for specific card schemes only.

Learn more about how to implement this functionality in our API Explorer.

Platform components

Platform components

From an architectural point of view, the key platform components of Banking.Live are briefly described here.

PayPower

PayPower is the service responsible for financial checks. It is a Java-based engine that handles all authorizations. It is responsible for parsing the incoming scheme message and verifying message authenticity by verifying the encrypted PAN (ECNO), PIN, address verification, and so on.

PayPower receives messages from PayRoute and does various checks, based on configured settings. It finally performs account checks, then deducts or adds the required amount to the account associated with the card.

PayRoute

PayRoute handles traffic between different cloud destinations and routes transactions coming from various card schemes or switches to PayPower.

PayRoute carries out the following functions:

  • Connection to schemes (Visa, Mastercard) and local switches, and receiving ISO messages from them.
    PayRoute is able to connect and process transactions from the following card schemes and local switches:
    • Mastercard
    • Visa
    • Jetco
    • UnionPay
    • UAE-Switch
    • Mada
    • CR2
    • AFS
    • Cortex
  • Performing of sign-on with local switches. If no PayPower is connected, then PayRoute sends a sign-off.
  • Checks if routing needs to be done to client-specific platforms based on BIN
  • When receiving a message back from PayPower, it builds it and sends it to the Schemes/Local switch

PayKey

PayKey handles cryptographic tasks, for all crypto Keys, PINs, HSMs, and so on.

Other Banking.Live components (such as PayRoute, PayApi, and PayScheduler) use PayKey services for:

  • Encrypting PAN to get ECNO
  • Decrypting ECNO to get PAN
  • CVV computation and verification
  • PVV computation
  • ARQC verification
  • ARPC generation
  • MAC verification
  • 3DS verification
  • PIN script and Issuer script generation
PayKeyServ

PayKey uses PayKeyServ in two different modes for the cryptographic process:

  1. Normal / Soft Mode: where all the cryptographic processing is done on PayKeyServ itself.
  2. HSM Mode: where all the cryptographic processing is done on an external HSM.
PayKeyGUI

PayKeyGUI is a PayKey application that is primarily utilized for importing and migrating keys as well as observing the key lists that have previously been imported. PayKeyGUI connects to PayKeyServ and imports keys to PayKeyDB through it.

PayKeyGUI is also used for key migration to the HSM. To migrate keys into HSM, PayKeyGUI connects to PayKeyServ, and PayKeyServ is connected to HSM, where keys are migrated.

PayControl

A web-based card/product management UI of Banking.Live used to manage the entire card lifecycle from start to finish, designed from the ground up to provide ultimate flexibility and scalability within a highly secure framework. Used by Paymentology and its clients for:

  • Account creation
  • Virtual card creation (physical cards can instead be created via API, through a direct create card API call)
  • Load amount/ balance
  • Set/get card account status
  • Dynamically view and assess live transaction traffic
  • Automated data exports
  • Multi-currency card control

In addition to this, PayControl provides several other functions to users, depending on their user privileges:

  • Interface for managing scheduled jobs and tasks. This allows the user to create, edit or delete jobs and tasks. Optionally, the user can choose to manually activate or deactivate tasks, outside of the scheduled time.
  • Interface for viewing applications and API audit logs.
  • Message analysis tool for drilling down the iso message of different networks
  • Configure rules, actions and groups simply and quickly
  • Crypto services:
    • CVV computation
    • SPA AAV computation
    • ARPC/ARQC computation
    • PIN services
    • PAN generator
    • Password encryption/decryption
  • Set up of users via a simple wizard interface to assist with solving for segregation of duties
  • Rule summary tool to get a summary of a rule function call
  • Card test screen to simulate transactions sent by networks (can perform volume testing, soak testing etc.)
  • API Documents
  • Application and database analytics.
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Read more about PayControl.

PayAPI

This is the web service handler. It receives inbound web service calls from clients and PayControl.

We also have secure APIs which are different from other RESTful APIs. These APIs were developed to provide additional security with end-to-end encryption for sharing sensitive information. More information can be found in this section: PaySecure API.

PayScheduler

This is responsible for running the scheduled tasks from PayControl.

Examples of jobs run by PayScheduler are:

  • Reports generation (more on Reports here. Supported report types: CSV, XML and XLXS)
  • SMS and Email sending
  • Parsing Settlement files
  • Matching settlement records with their corresponding authorisation records
  • Generating perso files

PayRule

PayRule is Paymentology’s market-leading rules and decision engine. It is powered by in-house developed functionality which advances the authorisation process of consumer spending on payment cards.

PayRule uses a proprietary wide-data array to enable high-speed card transaction history retrieval and analysis mid-flight before an authorisation decision.

The technology goes a step further by streaming the complete analytics set to clients through the FAST transaction interface.

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Read more about PayRule.

PayCore

PayCore refers to the shared cloud module that manages the ledger. It has its own schema and stored logic. It also acts as the configuration database for the various Paymentology application components, PayAPI and PayPower.

PayTok

PayTok is Banking.Live’s tokenization and EMV engine and database.

It is responsible for multiple functions:

  • tokenization and storage of ECNO and token stacks
  • pre-validation of a PIN
  • issuer validation

Updated 7 months ago