The present application is generally related to processing consumer transactions, and more specifically to the authorization of consumer transactions.
Many transactions (such as purchases, wire transfers, and the like) are performed with reference to a payment account, e.g., a credit card account, bank account, or other type of account. These types of accounts are subject to fraud since the money to pay for the transaction is not directly provided, but is instead retrieved from the payment account. For example, fraud might occur when someone other than the credit card holder uses the credit card number to make a purchase.
A reduction in fraud may be achieved in different ways. For example, when a consumer initiates a transaction with a merchant using a payment account, the merchant can send an authorization request for the payment account to a payment processing network. This authorization request can be part of a check for fraud, as well as a way to ensure that sufficient funds are available to pay for the transaction. However, such an authorization step can take a substantial amount of time. Thus, such an authorization step can reduce the amount of transactions that a merchant can handle, thereby reducing revenue. Consumers also may be delayed, which can discourage a transaction using the payment account.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide more efficient processing of transactions while maintaining some mechanism for checking fraud.