Smart routing for payment processing.
BazPay's smart payment routing lifts approvals by picking the connection with the best recent approval record for the shopper's BIN, retrying routable soft declines and matching payment method to market. All of it runs inside our own regional acquiring network — one contract, one API, one dashboard.
Built for EU, UK and Commonwealth e-commerce sellers, subscription software firms, digital publishers and professional-services businesses. No third-party PSPs in the routing path, no aggregated MID, no black-box orchestration layer.
Why smart routing earns its keep
Routing is invisible when it works and expensive when it does not. Four commitments make the difference between a router that lifts approvals in real numbers and one that just moves the traffic somewhere.
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Approval quality lifted at the BIN level
The router grades each connection against your recent approval record for that BIN range. Traffic that a specific issuer approves more reliably on connection A does not get sent through connection B by default.
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Retry logic on soft declines
Reason codes are read on the way back. A soft decline that historically clears on a second connection gets retried automatically; a hard decline goes straight back to the shopper without wasted retries.
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Method matched to shopper and market
SEPA Instant for German shoppers, Bancontact for British, BLIK for Australian — presented first in the checkout when the router detects the market signal, alongside cards and wallets on every rail.
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Exemption path claimed before challenge
Authentication logic runs upstream of routing. Low-value, risk analysis, trusted-beneficiary and MIT exemptions are claimed where the rules allow, so most orders never see a 3-D Secure prompt.
The four routing decisions on every charge
Every authorisation moves through four routing steps before it reaches the network. Each step is measurable, tunable and visible in real-time analytics.
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BIN-aware
BIN-aware connection routing
Every incoming authorisation carries a BIN. The router looks at your recent approval record for that BIN range on each available acquiring connection, then picks the connection with the highest live approval rate. The window is rolling — a connection that degrades this hour drops in the rankings this hour.
- BIN range
- Live approval rate
- Rolling window
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Retry
Soft-decline retry
Reason codes are read from the issuer response. A 05 that usually clears on a second connection triggers a routed retry; a 14 (invalid card) goes back to the shopper immediately.
- Reason-code aware
- Connection failover
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Method
Payment-method selection
The router surfaces the payment method the shopper is most likely to complete first — cards, device wallets, local APMs or SEPA Instant — based on market, basket and previous history on the payer.
- Country match
- Basket signals
- Payer history
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3-D Secure
Exemption-first authentication
3-D Secure 2 is a routing decision. Exemption logic claims low-value, risk analysis, trusted-beneficiary and MIT exemptions upstream of the authorisation call so most orders never see a challenge screen.
- Low value
- risk analysis
- MIT
Method depth on card and APM processing. Fraud rules that feed the router on payment fraud prevention.
The life of one routed authorisation
Six stages sit between the charge landing on the API and the settled dollar on your bank account. Each stage change fires a signed webhook keyed to the same charge ID.
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Ingest
Charge lands on the API. BIN, MCC, amount, currency, shopper history and device signals attach to the request.
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Score
The router grades every eligible connection against the recent approval record for that BIN range, MCC and amount band.
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3-D Secure
Exemption logic runs first. If an exemption is claimed the router skips 3-D Secure; otherwise the challenge is sequenced into the flow.
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Authorise
The router posts the tokenised charge to the chosen connection. The response is measured and fed back into the rolling window.
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Retry
On a routable soft decline, the router selects a second connection and retries. The retry is capped and always recorded.
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Stamp record
Final decision, rule IDs, retry count and 3-D Secure outcome are written to the payment and to the signed webhook stream.
Rules the router runs by default
The router ships with a sensible default rule set on day one. Every rule can be tuned from the dashboard, and every override is logged.
The table on the right shows a subset of the default rules and the outcomes they produce. Add your own overrides in the dashboard, and they take effect on the next order.
| Trigger | Router action | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Soft decline (05 do-not-honour) on connection A | Retry connection B | reason-code |
| BIN range with better recent approvals on connection B | Send to B first | BIN-aware |
| Order under scheme low-value threshold | Claim low-value exemption | Open-finance regulation |
| Merchant-initiated renewal on stored mandate | Claim MIT exemption | Open-finance regulation |
| Shopper IP resolves to NL, basket <€30 | Present SEPA Instant first | method |
| Hard decline (14 invalid card) | Return to shopper | no retry |
| Card reissued and refreshed via network token | Route without re-auth | token |
Features engineered into the router
Every capability below ships on the standard integration. Turn features on with a request flag or a dashboard toggle — no enterprise-tier gate on the primitives.
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Live BIN performance table
Approval rate per BIN range per connection, updated on a rolling window; the router reads from the same table finance teams read.
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Retry cap and budget
Retry attempts capped per payer and per window so a bad hour does not turn into a runaway retry storm on your bill.
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Custom router rules
Business overrides published from the dashboard — force method A for a market, ban retries above a value ceiling, hold challenge above a risk score.
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Exemption engine
Low-value, risk analysis, trusted-beneficiary and MIT exemptions applied automatically per rule set upstream of the authorisation call.
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Network tokens
Card reissues refresh through Visa and Mastercard token services, so a rerouted charge on a stored credential does not fall to a decline path.
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Signed webhooks
Every routed authorisation, retry, exemption claim and challenge outcome fires a signed HMAC event; audit and reconciliation stay first-class.
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Real-time telemetry
Router decisions land in real-time analytics within seconds so a rule change is visible before the next scheme cycle.
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Idempotent retries
Retries carry the original idempotency key. A merchant-side retry after a network blip never becomes a second charge for the shopper.
The router decision is a first-class field on the charge
Send a charge with the fields you already send. The router adds the decision — which connection carried the authorisation, which exemption was claimed, how many retries fired — to the response object and to the signed webhook. Your logs stay honest without extra plumbing.
POST /v1/charges
Idempotency-Key: 8f1c-2b3a-9e4d
{
"amount": 4990,
"currency": "EUR",
"payment_method": "card",
"capture": "auto",
"three_d_secure": "required_if_needed",
"customer": "cus_5F9k"
}The response contains the routing block with the chosen connection, the exemption applied, the retry count and the 3-D Secure outcome. The complete schema lives in the API reference.
Where payment smart routing earns its keep
The default rule set already reflects the four merchant profiles BazPay boards. Turn them on from the dashboard and tune each rule against your own approval data.
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Multi-country e-commerce
Cross-border DTC brands: local APMs surfaced first in the market of the shopper, cards routed through the connection with the best recent approvals for that BIN.
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Subscription software
Recurring renewals use MIT exemptions and network tokens; soft-decline retries reduce silent churn without a separate dunning vendor.
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Professional services
Higher-ticket B2B invoices route through the connection with the best BIN performance for the payer's issuer; 3-D Secure sequenced when the rule ceiling triggers it.
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Digital publishers
Membership renewals with a stored mandate stay frictionless via MIT exemptions; new-payer purchases route through method-selection logic.
Out of scope for BazPay: adult, gambling, CBD, nutraceutical, forex, CFD, crypto-exchange, debt-collection and MLM. BazPay is not a marketplace of third-party PSPs.
Smart routing vs a fixed connection
Not every gateway routes. Some send every authorisation through the same connection and let the issuer decide the rest. The comparison below explains where the difference shows up on a merchant's approval report.
| Dimension | BazPay smart routing | Fixed-connection gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Approval-lift signal | BIN, MCC, amount, live per-connection window | Fixed connection per merchant |
| Soft-decline retry | Reason-code aware, capped, idempotent | None or blind retry |
| SCA exemptions | Claimed upstream of authorisation | Blanket 3-D Secure |
| Method selection | Market + basket + payer history | Static checkout order |
| Rule changes | Dashboard, effective on next order | Ticket to the PSP |
| Visibility | Real-time analytics + signed webhooks | End-of-month report |
Rate structure on the pricing page. Plugin coverage on integrations.
Security, compliance and audit
Routing runs inside a PCI DSS Level 1 environment assessed each year. Every routing decision is audit-logged with rule IDs and connection identifiers so a finance team can reconstruct how any single charge ended up where it did.
- PCI DSS Level 1
- Annual assessment on the acquiring and gateway environment
- Merchant SAQ A
- Hosted fields and gateway vault keep card data out of your stack
- Authentication
- 3-D Secure 2.2 with automatic exemption logic upstream of routing
- GDPR
- In-region data residency; DPA on request
- Scheme rules
- Routing behaviour conforms to Visa VIRP and Mastercard SPoC/PCI-CP where applicable
Questions merchants ask about smart routing
What is smart routing in payment processing?
Smart routing is the logic that decides how each authorisation is sent — which acquiring connection carries it, whether a SCA exemption is claimed, whether a soft decline is retried, and which payment method is offered first at checkout. Well-tuned routing lifts approvals without changing the shopper's experience or your integration.
Does BazPay's smart payment routing send my traffic to third-party PSPs?
No. BazPay is a direct regional acquirer, not a marketplace of third-party PSPs. Routing happens inside the BazPay acquiring network — between our own scheme connections, exemption paths and payment-method surfaces — not across external processors. Your merchant contract stays with BazPay end to end.
How does routing for payment processing lift approval rates in practice?
Three mechanisms: BIN-aware connection selection sends traffic to the connection with the best recent approval record for that issuer range; PSD2 exemption logic keeps charges frictionless; and soft-decline retry rules re-attempt a routable decline on a second connection. Each one is measured and visible in real-time analytics.
Can I override the router with business rules?
Yes. Custom rules published from the dashboard can force a method for a market, ban retries above a value ceiling, hold a challenge above a risk threshold or route by MCC. Every override is logged and effective on the next order — no engineering release required.
How are soft-decline retries handled without duplicate charges?
Retries carry the original idempotency key. Only reason codes that historically clear on a second connection trigger a retry; hard declines like invalid card go straight back to the shopper. Retries are capped per payer and per window so a bad hour never becomes a runaway retry storm.
Does the smart router affect 3-D Secure and authentication?
Yes. Exemption logic runs upstream of routing so low-value, risk analysis, trusted-beneficiary and merchant-initiated exemptions are claimed where the rules allow. When a challenge does fire, the authentication result is bound to the charge and re-used as dispute evidence.
What data does the router look at, and where does it live?
BIN range, MCC, amount, currency, payer history and device signals travel with the charge. The router keeps a rolling window of per-connection approval rates and reads that window on every decision. All processing runs inside BazPay's regional environment under GDPR.
How does smart routing relate to payment orchestration?
Payment orchestration is the wider umbrella — the platform that sits above routing, billing, fraud and payouts. Smart routing is one moving part inside it. See payment orchestration for the broader picture and payment fraud prevention for the risk layer that scores each order before routing runs.
Route your first live charge through the sandbox
Open a sandbox account and post authorisations with different BINs, amounts and currencies. Every routing decision, retry and exemption is visible in the response and in real-time analytics. See also payments solutions, payment gateway services and payment processors.