Method and apparatus for optimizing authorization approval in a payment card transaction

A method for optimizing authorization approval in a proposed payment card transaction, the method comprising:

• determining an issuing country based on a bank identification number (BIN) for a payment card presented to a merchant in the proposed payment transaction, wherein the BIN identifies a specific cardholder issuing bank that issued the payment card presented in the proposed payment transaction, and wherein the issuing country is a predetermined country associated with cardholder issuing bank;
• determining a plurality of potential merchant countries based on the BIN, wherein the plurality of potential merchant countries includes two or more merchant countries with which the cardholder issuing bank has previously made at least one payment card transaction;
• and
• determining which of the plurality of potential merchant countries will, if selected for use in the proposed payment card transaction, have the highest probability of resulting in authorization approval by ranking each of the plurality of potential merchant countries using historical authorization approval rates for previously proposed card transactions transmitted through each of the plurality of potential merchant countries to the issuing country.

A tangible computer readable medium including executable instructions stored thereon, such that when executed by a processor, enable the processor to perform a method for optimizing authorization approval in a proposed payment card transaction, the method comprising:

• determining an issuing country based on a bank identification number (BIN) for a payment card presented to a merchant in the proposed payment transaction, wherein the BIN identifies a specific cardholder issuing bank that issued the payment card presented in the proposed payment transaction, and wherein the issuing country is a predetermined country associated with cardholder issuing bank;
• determining a plurality of potential merchant countries based on the BIN, wherein the plurality of potential merchant countries includes two or more merchant countries with which the cardholder issuing bank has previously made at least one payment card transaction;
• and
• determining which of the plurality of potential merchant countries will, if selected for use in the proposed payment card transaction, have the highest probability of resulting in authorization approval by ranking each of the plurality of potential merchant countries using historical authorization approval rates for previously proposed card transactions transmitted through each of the plurality of potential merchant countries to the issuing country.