question: How does a store like Walmart process and organize millions of payments per day?
comment: You buy the $5 item and slide your card. The machine you slide your card in is connected to a computer and the internet. The computer stores the sale in a database and then sends the card data to the card processor. The processor electronically contacts your banks card server and asks if you have enough money. The server says yes he has money so the processor says cool send that money to this specific account that Walmart has setup with us. The bank puts a hold on that money as if it is gone already and then at a specific time of day Walmart finalizes all transactions by sending out a signal that says, "All that money I requested today? Send it." Then the processor sends a report letting them know all of the transactions that happened for the day. They then compare this report to the database of transactions that they recorded in store to make sure they don't miss any transactions. If everything matches up they file it away. If it doesn't match up they have to track down where the missing transaction is. Walmart pays a certain percentage of their sales to the processor for this service. For most small merchants it's about 3% but since Walmart is huge they get better rates more like 1% or less.
passages: PSP fees are typically levied in one of two ways: as a percentage of each transaction or a fixed cost per transaction.
  
  US-based on-line payment service providers are supervised by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (or FinCEN), a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat money laundering, terrorist financiers, and other financial crimes.
  
  There are more than 900 payment providers in the world. More than 300 offer services for Europe and North America.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Cashier as a service
   CHIPS provides real-time, immediate and final settlement of payment messages continuously throughout the day similar to Fedwire. During the business day, system participants can send their payments to CHIPS. Funds are released by available funds on hand (no overdrafts are permitted) or through offsetting. A “balance release algorithm” continuously searches the queue of unreleased payments and uses this patented off-setting algorithm to match and release payments.
   These services include centralized payment, collection, and reporting services, oversight of a daily cash flow of nearly $58 billion into and out of federal accounts, disbursement of more than $1.5 trillion to more than 100 million individuals via Social Security and veterans' benefits, issuance of tax refunds and other federal payments, collection of more than $2.67 trillion per year in payments to the government through financial institutions, and collection of delinquent debts owed to the government.
   There are two types of payment methods; exchanging and provisioning. Exchanging involves the use of money, comprising banknotes and coins. Provisioning involves the transfer of money from one account to another, and involves a third party. Credit card, debit card, cheque, money transfers, and recurring cash or ACH (Automated Clearing House) disbursements are all electronic payments methods. Electronic payments technologies include magnetic stripe cards, smartcards, contactless cards, and mobile payments.
  
  Section::::Parties involved.
   In 2016, Payments Canada's systems cleared and settled 7.4 billion payments totaling over $50.8 trillion - $201.5 billion on average each business day.
  
  Section::::Governance.
  
  The organization has 115 members including the Bank of Canada, chartered banks, trust and loan companies, credit union centrals, federations of caisses populaires and other financial institutions. The Minister of Finance has oversight responsibilities for Payments Canada. The Governor of the Bank of Canada has oversight responsibility for the LVTS and ACSS under the "Payment Clearing and Settlement Act".
   A netting engine consolidates all of the pending payments into fewer single transactions. For example, if Bank of America is to pay American Express US$1.2 million, and American Express is to pay Bank of America $800,000, the CHIPS system aggregates this to a single payment of $400,000 from Bank of America to American Express — only 20% of the $2 million to be transferred actually changes hands. The Fedwire system would require two separate payments for the full amounts ($1.2 million to American Express and $800,000 to Bank of America).
  
  Section::::Members.
   Organizations automate invoice processing and purchasing policies and procedures to bring financial rigor and process efficiency to the business of buying.
  
  Both purchase order (PO) and non-PO spending, capital, credit card and reimbursable spending can be captured and controlled through automated P2P systems. Finance departments can also enforce internal spending controls and have instant access to data that tells them who is spending, what they are buying and paying for, and with which vendors.
  
  As a result, efficiency and cost saving benefits can be substantial.
  
  Section::::History.
   Accounts payable automation or AP automation is the ongoing effort of many companies to streamline the business process of their accounts payable departments. The accounts payable department's main responsibility is to process and review transactions between the company and its suppliers. In other words, it is the accounts payable department's job to make sure all outstanding invoices from their suppliers are approved, processed, and paid. Processing an invoice includes recording important data from the invoice and inputting it into the company’s financial, or bookkeeping, system. After this is accomplished, the invoices must go through the company’s respective business process in order to be paid.
   Today, point of sale systems scan the barcode (usually EAN or UPC) for each item, retrieve the price from a database, calculate deductions for items on sale (or, in British retail terminology, "special offer", "multibuy" or "buy one, get one free"), calculate the sales tax or VAT, calculate differential rates for preferred customers, actualize inventory, time and date stamp the transaction, record the transaction in detail including each item purchased, record the method of payment, keep totals for each product or type of product sold as well as total sales for specified periods, and do other tasks as well. These POS terminals will often also identify the cashier on the receipt, and carry additional information or offers.
   In addition to the bill payment facility, most banks will also offer various features with their electronic bill payment systems. These include the ability to schedule payments in advance to be made on a specified date (convenient for installments such as mortgage and support payments), to save the biller information for reuse at a future time and various options for searching the recent payment history. In many cases the payment data can also be downloaded and posted directly into the customer's accounting or personal finance software.
  
  Section::::History.
   Section::::PayCo services.:Electronic Payments Network.
  
  Electronic Payments Network (EPN) is an automated clearing house, i.e. a computerized, batch-processing funds-transfer system that processes domestic consumer and commercial financial transactions among depository institutions. Rather than sending each payment separately, ACH transactions are accumulated and sorted by destination for transmission during a predetermined time period.
   BULLET::::- Cash concentration services: Large or national chain retailers often are in areas where their primary bank does not have branches. Therefore, they open bank accounts at various local banks in the area. To prevent funds in these accounts from being idle and not earning sufficient interest, many of these companies have an agreement set with their primary bank, whereby their primary bank uses the automated clearing house to electronically "pull" the money from these banks into a single interest-bearing bank account. See also: Cash concentration.
   Mellon is a large provider of what are known as controlled disbursement accounts. These are checking accounts in specialized locations which are given early warning by the Federal Reserve as to what checks will be clearing them. Companies can then transfer the exact amount needed to pay those checks, while then investing the unneeded money or using other funds to pay down debt.
  
  Section::::Mellon Bank CEOs.
  
  BULLET::::- Robert E. Kelly February 13, 2006 – July 1, 2007
  
  BULLET::::- Martin G. McGuinn January 1, 1999 – February 13, 2006
  
  BULLET::::- Frank Cahouet April 13, 1987 – January 1, 1999
   Some companies also separate the functions of adding new vendors and entering vouchers. This makes it impossible for an employee to add himself as a vendor and then cut a cheque to himself without colluding with another employee. This file is referred to as the master vendor file. It is the repository of all significant information about the company's suppliers. It is the reference point for accounts payable when it comes to paying invoices.
  
  In addition, most companies require a second signature on cheques whose amount exceeds a specified threshold.
   Some of the most common AP automation solutions include E-invoicing, scanning and workflow, online tracking, reporting capabilities, electronic invoice user interfaces, supplier networks, payment services and spend analytics for all invoices.
   In many business models, a contractual relationship is established first via a Contract or Subscription. Orders are then received via different sales channels, such as phone, fax, email, internet or sales person. The contractual relationship is confirmed and the Orders are fulfilled through shipping and logistics. On completion of key events an invoice is generated and booked as Sales (subject to "Revenue Recognition" requirements). If payment has not already been received, the debt is recorded and pursued through dunning cycles until the funds are received. Order to Cash is completed by the Customer Care and Field Service and Repair process (inquiries, requests and complaints).
   BULLET::::1. The customer fills an application form providing details of the beneficiary (like name, bank, branch name, IFSC, account type and account number) and the amount to be remitted. The remitter authorizes his/her bank branch to debit his account and remit the specified amount to the beneficiary. This facility is also available through online banking, and some banks also offer the NEFT facility through ATMs.
  
  BULLET::::2. The originating bank branch prepares a message and sends the message to its pooling centre (also called the NEFT Service Centre).
   In households, accounts payable are ordinarily bills from the electric company, telephone company, cable television or satellite dish service, newspaper subscription, and other such regular services. Householders usually track and pay on a monthly basis by hand using cheques, credit cards or internet banking. In a business, there is usually a much broader range of services in the AP file, and accountants or bookkeepers usually use accounting software to track the flow of money into this liability account when they receive invoices and out of it when they make payments. Increasingly, large firms are using specialized Accounts Payable automation solutions (commonly called ePayables) to automate the paper and manual elements of processing an organization's invoices.
   The infrastructure and electronic clearing methods are formed by the payment provider. Global credit card payment providers are Diners Club, Visa, American Express and MasterCard. Maestro and Cirrus are international debit card payment providers.
  
  Section::::Interbank.
  
  The "central bank CB(Ccy)" of a currency can maintain a loro account for a bank (which the bank would call a nostro account).
  
  Section::::Interbank.:Direct.
   By late 2015, Braintree was processing nearly $50 billion in Authorized Payment Volume, up from $12 billion at the time they were acquired by PayPal in 2013, and had 154 million cards on file, up from 56.5 million.
  
  Section::::Products and services.
  
  Braintree provides businesses with the ability to accept payments online or within their mobile application.
  
  On October 1, 2012 Braintree launched instant signup, streamlining the signup process for US merchants to a few minutes.
   2000 – Moneris established. Becomes first Canadian acquirer to offer both VISA and MasterCard merchant accounts in one single point of contact
  
  2003 – Acquired Ernex Marketing Technologies, a gift and loyalty card processor primarily based in Burnaby, British Columbia
  
  2005 – Processed Canada’s first Visa-certified EMV transaction
  
  2005 – Processed Canada’s first Interac Online transaction
  
  2007 – Became one of the first acquirers in Canada to be certified by Interac Association, MasterCard and VISA to deliver EMV technology
  
  2008 – Acquired Keycorp Canada, one of the largest providers of POS support services
   PSC embarked on computerization of its operations and back office in 1984. The first system to handle container movements became operational from 1985 to 1999. Thereafter the computer applications were enhanced to cover all back office operations including invoicing and accounts.
   In February 2018, Ebury became the first to join as a directly connected non settling participant, DCNSp.
  
  In April 2018, TransferWise joined Faster Payments as the first non-bank payment service provider to be a directly connected settling participant, after being the first of its kind to gain access to Bank of England's Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system.
  
  Section::::Organisation.:Implementation.
   "SVPCO Online Settlement" is integrated with the SVPCO Image Payments Network and provides automated settlement for cash letter activity. It also works in tandem with SVPCO Online Adjustments, which allows institutions to reconcile adjustments the same day by eliminating the need for paper forms and attachments.
  
  Section::::Check exchanges.
   Started in November 2005, the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) system is a nationwide system that facilitates individuals, firms and corporates to electronically transfer funds from any bank branch to any individual, firm or corporate having an account with any other bank branch in the country.It is done via electronic messages. Even though it is not on real time basis like RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement), hourly batches are run in order to speed up the transactions.
  
presuppositions: Walmart process and organize millions of payments per day.
corrections: The card processor electronically processes the transactions for Walmart, they pay for this service.
raw_presuppositions: Walmart process and organize millions of payments per day. Walmart process and organize millions of payments per day.
raw_corrections: The card processor electronically processes the transactions for Walmart, they pay for this service. The card processor electronically processes the transactions for Walmart, they pay for this service.