Time-Of-Transaction Foreign Currency Conversion

A method for processing credit card transactions, each transaction occurring between a merchant and a cardholder using a credit card of the cardholder and having a transaction amount, each merchant associated with a local currency, each credit card having an associated issuing currency, the method comprising:

• receiving a plurality of transactions from a plurality of merchants;
• for each transaction:
• determining a base rate for converting the transaction from an amount denominated in the local currency to an amount denominated in the issuing currency;
• determining a markup to apply to the base rate;
• converting the transaction amount from the amount denominated in the local currency to an amount denominated in the issuing currency according to the base rate and the markup rate;
• communicating to the merchant from which the transaction was received the amount denominated in the issuing currency.

A method for processing credit card transactions, the transaction occurring between a merchant and a plurality of cardholders, each cardholder using a credit card having an associated issuing currency, the merchant having a merchant ID (MID) and the merchant associated with a local currency, the method comprising:

• defining a foreign merchant ID (FMID) for the merchant for each issuing currency supported by the merchant;
• determining a mapping from the MID to each FMID of the merchant;
• receiving from the merchant a plurality of credit transaction records to be processed, each transaction record including the MID;
• for each received transaction record, replacing the MID with the FMID for the issuing currency of the credit card used in the transaction to create a modified transaction record;
• grouping the modified transaction records according to FMID;
• and
• transmitting the grouped modified transaction records for clearance.

A method for processing credit card transactions, each transaction occurring between a merchant and a cardholder, each cardholder using a credit card having an issuing currency and associated with a card association, and each merchant having an associated local currency, the method comprising:

• receiving an authorization request from a merchant, the authorization request including an identifier associated with the credit card used for the transaction being authorized, and a transaction amount in the local currency of the merchant;
• converting the transaction amount in the local currency to a modified transaction amount in the issuing currency using a base rate between the two currencies and at least one of a plurality of markup rates between the two currencies;
• forwarding the authorization request including the modified transaction amount to an issuing bank;
• receiving an authorization for the transaction from the issuing bank;
• transmitting the authorization to the merchant;
• and
• receiving a reconciliation report from the card association, the reconciliation report including information describing the transaction.