Payment Cost Optimization
Payment Cost Optimization is about lowering effective MSC — qualifying for the best interchange, minimizing scheme fees, and routing for cost. This page lists the 37 data points Athia uses for this use case, with their definitions, types, expected sources, availability and data class.
The field names below are the payments-standard names for each data point. Use this page to line your own schema up against them.
The field names on this page are payments-standard names — they describe each data point at the level of the standard it comes from. Athia Data Dictionary carries the names Athia uses and a crosswalk between the two. You do not have to match either exactly — the mapping from your own columns is agreed with your Athia team on ingest. One delivered field often covers several data points here, decline codes especially.
Sub-use cases
- Interchange optimization — qualifying each transaction for the cheapest program it is eligible for, using program codes and rates, card and MCC attributes, authentication results, and downgrade diagnostics.
- Least-cost routing — choosing the cheapest available network using BIN, funding category, Reg II regulated-debit status and the debit networks available on the card.
- Scheme fee minimization — working the itemized scheme fee stack: network assessments and per-authorization network access fees.
- Acquirer markup benchmarking — separating pass-through cost from acquirer markup by comparing total processing cost and effective bps against the interchange and qualification level actually achieved.
- Rate-card simulation — modelling cost under alternative rate cards from program codes, interchange amounts, pass-through fees, published interchange bulletins and downgrade deltas.
- FX cost — presentment and settlement currency pairs, the applied rate against a benchmark reference rate, markup in bps, DCC exposure and cross-border fee.
- Network tokenization for cost — assessing the interchange impact of network tokens using interchange rate and card product.
- Payment method mix — comparing effective cost in bps across payment methods.
- Card vs bank rail steering — comparing total processing cost between card and bank rails.
- Refund volume reduction — quantifying the processing cost carried by refunded volume.
Data points
Cost ledger
| Field | Category | Definition | Type | Example | Source | Availability | Data class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
interchange_program_code | Cost ledger | Interchange program/tier qualified for. | code | CPS/Retail | Acquirer / network file | Full | None |
interchange_rate_bps | Cost ledger | Interchange rate in basis points. | decimal | 175 | Acquirer / network file | Full | None |
interchange_amount | Cost ledger | Interchange fee on the transaction. | money | 2.60 USD | Acquirer / network file | Full | None |
scheme_fee_breakdown | Cost ledger | Itemized scheme fees (NABU/APF/TIF/x-border/FANF). | array<object> | [{code,amt}] | Acquirer / network file | Full | None |
total_processing_cost | Cost ledger | Sum of all cost components for the transaction. | money | 3.50 USD | Athia derived | Full | None |
effective_cost_bps | Cost ledger | Total cost as bps of transaction amount. | decimal | 269 | Athia derived | Full | None |
Card & MCC
| Field | Category | Definition | Type | Example | Source | Availability | Data class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BIN | Card & MCC | Bank Identification Number of the card. | string | 424242 | PSP / processor report | Full | PCI |
card_product | Card & MCC | Card product/program (consumer/commercial/etc.). | enum | Commercial | Third-party enrichment | Full | None |
card_type | Card & MCC | Funding category (credit/debit/prepaid). | enum | debit | Third-party enrichment | Full | None |
mcc | Card & MCC | Merchant Category Code. | code | 5411 | PSP / processor report | Full | None |
regulated_debit_flag | Card & MCC | Reg II (Durbin) regulated debit. | boolean | true | Third-party enrichment | Full | None |
debit_network_options | Card & MCC | Available debit networks for routing. | array<string> | [Visa, STAR, NYCE] | Third-party enrichment | Full | None |
Authentication
| Field | Category | Definition | Type | Example | Source | Availability | Data class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
avs_result | Authentication | Address Verification result (lower-rate qualification). | code | Y | PSP / processor report | Full | None |
cvv_result | Authentication | Card security code result. | code | M | PSP / processor report | Full | None |
eci | Authentication | Electronic Commerce Indicator. | code | 05 | PSP / processor report | Partial | None |
cavv | Authentication | 3DS authentication value. | string | jJ81… | Not available | Not available | Sensitive |
card_present_flag | Authentication | Whether the card was present (CP vs CNP). | boolean | false | PSP / processor report | Full | None |
pos_entry_mode | Authentication | How card data was captured. | code | 812 | PSP / processor report | Partial | None |
FX detail
| Field | Category | Definition | Type | Example | Source | Availability | Data class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
presentment_currency | FX detail | Cardholder presentment currency. | code | GBP | PSP / processor report | Full | None |
settlement_currency | FX detail | Settlement currency. | code | USD | Acquirer / network file | Full | None |
fx_rate_applied | FX detail | FX rate applied to the transaction. | decimal | 1.2650 | Acquirer / network file | Full | None |
fx_markup_bps | FX detail | FX markup over benchmark in bps. | decimal | 75 | Athia derived | Full | None |
dcc_offered | FX detail | Whether DCC was offered to the cardholder. | boolean | true | PSP / processor report | Limited | None |
dcc_accepted | FX detail | Whether the cardholder accepted DCC. | boolean | false | PSP / processor report | Limited | None |
cross_border_fee_avoided | FX detail | Modeled cross-border fee avoided by routing. | money | 1.30 USD | Not available | Not available | None |
Enrichment
| Field | Category | Definition | Type | Example | Source | Availability | Data class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
visa_mc_irf_schedule | Enrichment | Quarterly interchange + fee bulletins. | reference | Apr 2026 IRF | Third-party enrichment | Full | None |
fx_reference_rate | Enrichment | Benchmark FX rate (ECB/Reuters). | decimal | 1.2600 | Third-party enrichment | Full | None |
Interchange & downgrade
| Field | Category | Definition | Type | Example | Source | Availability | Data class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
assessment_fee | Interchange & downgrade | Card-network assessment fee (Visa/Mastercard assessment, a % of volume) — a pass-through '+' component of IC++. | money | 0.13 USD | Acquirer / network file | Full | None |
network_access_fee | Interchange & downgrade | Per-authorization network access fee (e.g. Visa APF, Mastercard NABU) — pass-through. | money | 0.0195 USD | Acquirer / network file | Full | None |
fee_program_indicator | Interchange & downgrade | Fee Program Indicator / interchange program descriptor on the clearing record (Visa FPI, Mastercard interchange program ID) identifying the program the transaction cleared at. | code | U | Acquirer / network file | Full | None |
target_interchange_program | Interchange & downgrade | The lowest-cost interchange program the transaction was eligible for (its target qualification). | code | CPS/e-Commerce Basic | Athia derived | Partial | None |
interchange_downgrade_flag | Interchange & downgrade | Whether the transaction cleared at a more expensive program than its target (i.e. downgraded). | boolean | true | Athia derived | Partial | None |
downgrade_reason_code | Interchange & downgrade | Why the transaction missed its target interchange (e.g. LATE_SETTLEMENT, MISSING_AVS, NO_L2_L3, MISSING_CVV, EXPIRED_AUTH, NON_QUALIFIED_MCC). | enum | MISSING_AVS | Acquirer / network file | Partial | None |
qualification_level | Interchange & downgrade | Interchange qualification tier achieved — Qualified / Mid-qualified / Non-qualified (or EIRF / Standard). | enum | Non-qualified | Acquirer / network file | Partial | None |
downgrade_cost_delta_bps | Interchange & downgrade | Extra cost (bps) incurred by clearing at the downgraded program vs the target program. | decimal | 35 | Athia derived | Partial | None |
auth_to_capture_hours | Interchange & downgrade | Hours between authorization and capture/clearing — a primary downgrade driver (late presentment). | decimal | 26.5 | Athia derived | Full | None |
enhanced_data_flag | Interchange & downgrade | Whether Level 2 / Level 3 enhanced data was submitted (required for commercial-card interchange qualification). | boolean | false | Athia derived | Full | None |
Availability
Availability describes how reliably Athia can obtain a field in practice, given the sources it is fed from. It is a statement about supply, not about how useful the field is.
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Full | Athia gets this reliably from standard sources. |
| Partial | Available from some providers, or some of the time. |
| Limited | Available only in specific setups or on request. |
| Not available | Athia cannot obtain this today. |
For this use case, cavv and cross_border_fee_avoided are marked Not available. Without cavv, 3DS authentication cannot be confirmed at the record level, so authenticated-rate qualification has to be inferred from eci and the other authentication fields; without cross_border_fee_avoided, the cross-border saving from a routing decision cannot be attributed directly and has to be reasoned about from the scheme fee breakdown and currency fields.
Data class
PCI fields are minimized — BIN plus last four only, never the full PAN and never a CVV value. PII should be delivered hashed, tokenized or generalized wherever the analysis allows it. Sensitive fields are never required for this use case.
Field-level definitions for the core entities are in Athia Data Dictionary.
Updated 1 day ago