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Card Payment Cycle
This section provides a high level overview of a typical face-to-face or card present transaction and how it is processed.
When paying for purchases with a card, the transaction appears to happen almost instantaneously after the PIN is entered. However, there is a complex payments infrastructure behind the scenes making sure that the transaction is processed correctly. The following diagram sets out the steps, numbered from 1 to 8, in a card transaction’s payments cycle for a typical face–to–face or card present transaction; there are five stakeholders in the process:
Figure 2: Card Payment Cycle
