Calculations include clearing and settlement.
Clearing refers to the delivery of data on transactions carried out during the settlement day from the acquirer to the issuer, which as a result should lead to the debiting of funds from the cardholder’s account. Thus, the debiting occurs only after receiving the clearing file from the international payment system and matching all the parameters of the online transaction with the data of the file for the same operation. The clearing file takes into account the fees and various debits charged to both the acquirer and the issuer. For the convenience of calculations, the amounts of transactions in the clearing file are converted into a currency called settlement currency, for example, US dollars or euros. The ultimate goal of clearing is to provide a refund to the acquirer for the funds issued and the goods or services provided. The compensation is provided at the expense of the issuer’s funds. After clearing, it is the turn of settlement, which includes the final calculations for the acquirer and the issuer, which are performed by the payment system. According to the definition, settlement is calculating, determining and reporting the net financial position of issuers and acquirers for all transactions that are cleared.
