Reference stack
Accept payments globally
A multi-market payment acceptance stack covering acquiring, local payment methods, orchestration, fraud, payouts and reconciliation.
Intended audience and markets
Audience
Markets
Infrastructure layers
Acquirers and gateways
RequiredProcess card and alternative-payment transactions in target markets.
Selection criteria
- Local acquiring footprint
- Merchant-category eligibility
- Settlement currencies and reserves
Local payment methods
OptionalExtend collection and payout coverage where cards are not the primary rail.
Selection criteria
- Country-specific methods
- Local settlement
- Refund and dispute handling
Payment orchestration
OptionalRoute across processors, manage tokens and reduce single-provider dependency.
Selection criteria
- Provider connectors
- Token portability
- Routing and failover controls
Fraud and authentication
RequiredControl payment fraud, account abuse and authentication.
Selection criteria
- 3-D Secure integration
- Device and behavioural signals
- Manual review and liability rules
Payouts and reconciliation
RequiredPay merchants or users and reconcile funds across providers.
Selection criteria
- Payout methods and countries
- Ledger and settlement identifiers
- Returns and exception handling
Implementation sequence
- Acquirers and gateways
- Local payment methods
- Payment orchestration
- Fraud and authentication
- Payouts and reconciliation
Regulatory considerations
- Acquiring, money transmission and marketplace-funds flows may involve different regulated entities.
- Confirm who is merchant of record and who carries chargeback, refund and reserve obligations.
Technical considerations
- Use provider-independent payment and order identifiers.
- Design token portability and orchestration only after validating processor capabilities.
- Reconcile authorisations, captures, refunds, fees, payouts and settlement separately.
Questions to ask providers
- Which legal entity contracts for each service and in which jurisdictions?
- Which responsibilities remain with the product operator rather than the provider?
- What are the implementation, approval, testing and migration timelines?
- How are incidents, exits, data portability and business continuity handled?
- Which markets require local acquiring or local entities?
- What is the acceptable dependence on a single token vault?
What this stack does not cover
- Tax, merchant-of-record services and local consumer-law compliance are not included.
Related stacks
Reviewed on 2026-07-07.
Provider options are examples of infrastructure roles, not endorsements or a guarantee of suitability, availability or regulatory compliance. Confirm requirements for your product with each provider and qualified advisers.