Background

Financial Switching

Switching is the process through which financial messages are received, converted, routed and transmitted between the parties participating in a financial transaction. The Crimson ISO-8583 Financial Switch uses the concepts of source and sink nodes to process a financial transaction.

The following diagram illustrates the basic switching cycle:

1. A merchant sends a message asking for a financial transaction to be completed against a card account.
2. The message arrives on a Crimson Source Node that is connected directly to the merchant, or to an intermediate switch connected to the merchant. The source node performs protocol translation and submits the request to the core switch.
3. The core switch processes the transaction and executes the routing of the request to a specific sink node.
4. The sink node receives the message and performs protocol translation. It submits the message to the card issuer and waits for a response.
5. The response form the card issuer is routed back to the merchant who completes the transaction.

Crimson is a high-performance transaction switch that performs real-time processing for a variety of transaction types, from numerous sources, over any communication medium, and prepares them for transmission to any destination.

Crimson forms the link between any kind of payment device and any number of networks or host systems.
It allows for the integration of any type of payment – whether driven by real-world, virtual, or wireless channels – on a single platform, without the need to alter existing infrastructure.