Platform / Orchestration & Payment Processing /

Intelligent Routing

<Declined at one provider. Approved at the next.>

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Dynamically route transactions to the best provider to improve authorization rates and lower fees.

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IXOPAY routing rules console: an EU cards rule set routing Visa and Mastercard payments from DE, AT and CH between two providers, with a live trace showing a declined payment retried and authorized

$171B

In payments orchestrated in 2025

500+

Pre-built payment adapters

850M+

Payment events analyzed by AI

Key Benefits

Improve Authorization Rates

Boost sales by directing transactions based on geographic location, transaction type, historical success rates, and more.

Reduce Costs

Minimize interchange fees and the costs associated with cross-border payments with intelligent routing.

Increase Reliability

Reduce failed transactions by dynamically adapting to provider outages, errors, or load-balancing issues.

Reduce Fraud

Catch fraudulent transactions and lower fraud rates with transaction risk analysis.

How it Works

With our Smart Routing Engine, different payment flow strategies can be implemented based on personalized rules, increasing conversions while cutting transaction costs. Route transactions to the best provider based on card type, customer details, geolocation information, risk assessment, and platform or application-specific data. Configure rules that go into effect immediately via an easy drag-and-drop graphical interface.

Connect once

Integrate the IXOPAY API a single time.

Define your rules

Route by card type, customer details, geolocation, risk assessment, or platform data.

Route in real time

New rules take effect immediately through the drag-and-drop interface.

routing-rule.json

POST /v1/routing/rules

{
  "if": {
    "scheme": ["visa", "mastercard"],
    "country": ["DE", "AT", "CH"]
  },
  "route": [
    { "to": "acquirer_a", "weight": 70 },
    { "to": "psp_b", "weight": 30 }
  ],
  "fallback": "psp_d"
}

[What You Get]

Every transaction takes its best route

Automatic Smart Retry

Fallback routing automatically retries failed transactions due to errors, declines, or system issues. If the primary provider is unavailable, it redirects to a secondary one, ensuring seamless processing, minimizing bottlenecks, and protecting revenue.

Retry cascade for one transaction: declined at Acquirer A, retried on PSP D as the fallback route, then authorized

Load Balancing

Distribute payment volume across multiple PSPs, automatically routing transactions to top-performing providers. Load balancing optimizes performance, mitigates risk for high-risk merchants, and prevents exceeding contractual limits.

Bar chart of payment volume split across three providers over the last 24 hours

Geographic Optimization

Local providers offer lower fees and higher authorization rates. IXOPAY’s Intelligent Routing and Fee Management Engines route transactions to regional PSPs based on card origin, reducing costs and boosting conversions. By prioritizing local payment methods at checkout, merchants improve authorization rates.

Bar chart comparing approval rates for local acquirers and cross-border processing in four countries

Risk-Based Routing

Use the risk classification of an individual transaction to determine the ideal routing. Check risk scores based on rules and push transactions to the most appropriate providers in order to improve the chances of authorization.

Risk score routing table: low scores route to the lowest-cost acquirer, medium scores route with 3DS, high scores are blocked

[FAQ]

Common questions

Still have questions?

Our routing specialists can review your provider setup and show where IXOPAY fits.

Talk to a Routing Expert

What is dynamic payment routing?

Basics

Dynamic payment routing is a key feature in multi-provider setups, giving you more control over your payment strategy. It calculates the best route across banks and MIDs, configuring real-time rules to track results and adapt possible scenarios depending on client needs. Dynamic payment routing allows you to customize your payment flows, implement flexible load distribution, lower transaction costs, and use fall-back routing and cascading if a provider is unavailable.

To process a transaction, every component in the payment ecosystem must work in tandem. Acquirers, issuers, payment providers, and others must cooperate to ensure an optimal payment process. What looks simple to the end customer and only takes seconds to complete results from a complex interplay between multiple connected stakeholders.

Why should businesses use multiple payment providers to process transactions?

Providers

Interruptions to your payment processing result in declined transactions, checkout abandonment, and lower customer retention. A multi-acquirer setup provides a seamless service that protects your revenue stream by integrating multiple payment service providers and acquirers via a single API. You can automatically route transactions through another provider if one service provider is unavailable (e.g., for technical reasons).

Enterprise merchants with access to multiple payment integrations to acquirers, PSPs, gateways etc., can increase payment acceptance rates and lower processing fees. A multi-acquirer setup is the best practice for both regional and global merchants. It provides flexibility and independence, protecting payment flows from unexpected outages or surprises.

[The Future is Agentic]

Are You Ready?

As commerce shifts from clicks to agents, your infrastructure must be protocol-agnostic. IXOPAY acts as the neutral trust layer, orchestrating identity and value across the fragmenting landscape of AI agent protocols.

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