In the cost+/interchange plus flow, which sequence is correct?

In the cost+/interchange plus flow, which sequence is correct?

• A. Cardholder, merchant, payment gateway, acquirer, card network, issuing bank.
• B. Merchant, cardholder, payment gateway, acquirer, card network, issuing bank.
• C. Cardholder, issuer, card network, gateway, merchant.
• D. Cardholder, merchant, acquirer, issuer, card network, gateway.

Answer: (A)

In this flow, the key idea is the actual path a payment authorization takes from the moment a card is presented to the merchant to the point the issuing bank approves or declines the payment. The cardholder initiates the transaction through the merchant, the merchant sends the data through a payment gateway, which forwards it to the acquiring bank. The acquirer then routes the request through the card network to the issuing bank, which makes the authorization decision. The response travels back along the same path to the merchant and cardholder. That makes the sequence cardholder → merchant → payment gateway → acquirer → card network → issuing bank the correct ordering. In cost+/interchange-plus setups, this routing remains the same; the “plus” part refers to how the merchant’s costs are calculated on top of the interchange fees, not to a different routing path. The other options disrupt the actual message flow (for example, placing the issuer before the network, or omitting the gateway where it belongs), which would not reflect how authorization data moves through the system.

In this flow, the key idea is the actual path a payment authorization takes from the moment a card is presented to the merchant to the point the issuing bank approves or declines the payment. The cardholder initiates the transaction through the merchant, the merchant sends the data through a payment gateway, which forwards it to the acquiring bank. The acquirer then routes the request through the card network to the issuing bank, which makes the authorization decision. The response travels back along the same path to the merchant and cardholder. That makes the sequence cardholder → merchant → payment gateway → acquirer → card network → issuing bank the correct ordering. In cost+/interchange-plus setups, this routing remains the same; the “plus” part refers to how the merchant’s costs are calculated on top of the interchange fees, not to a different routing path. The other options disrupt the actual message flow (for example, placing the issuer before the network, or omitting the gateway where it belongs), which would not reflect how authorization data moves through the system.