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Report highlights opportunities for European payment processors

August 2, 2016

 There are opportunities on the horizon for new entrants into the payment processing market, according to a new RBR report, "Payment Cards Issuing and Acquiring Europe 2016."

Individual acquirers interface with card scheme networks directly, large and medium-sized banks have independent processing centers, and several countries are responsible for maintaining merchant databases, reveals the report. Ultimately, there is a wide range of models currently implemented in European processing systems, but not one model-fits-all, according to a release.

Transaction authorization is generally electronic and card transactions are typically routed to an interbank organization for clearing. Further, RBR’s report points out while many markets authorize all payments, some organizations use floor limits.

Daniel Dawson, who led the RBR research, said “As banks and other acquirers increasingly look for ways to reduce their costs and improve the efficiency of their operations, we can expect the outsourcing of merchant processing to become more common.” For example, TPPd and card schemes may make a stronger appearance as they aid in processing activities.