How does clearing work?
Once a merchant captures a payment, its acquirer gathers completed transactions and submits them to the card scheme in clearing files. Paymentology, an issuer processor, calls the records sent from acquirer to issuer to confirm completed purchases presentments, and stresses that clearing messages carry data but do not move funds. The scheme validates each record, applies fees and routes it to the issuer, which matches it to the original authorization and posts it to the cardholder’s account. Intelica describes Visa’s BASE II and Mastercard’s Global Clearing Management System as the platforms that collect and validate this data, and notes that clearing applies the rules for domestic and international interchange. The European Central Bank’s general definition fits: reconciling and confirming transactions before settlement, which can include netting.
How is it different from settlement?
Clearing decides what is owed; settlement moves the money. Paymentology notes that settlement can only happen after clearing. As an illustrative example: a store captures 1,000 payments worth 60,000 euros on Monday. Clearing presents all 1,000 to the issuers with interchange of 0.3%, or 180 euros, so the acquirer is owed 59,820 euros before scheme fees. Settlement then transfers the funds, and the acquirer or PSP pays the merchant on its own schedule.
What can go wrong?
Clearing records do not always match authorizations. Paymentology lists cases where the amount or merchant details changed at presentment, and cases where a merchant forced a presentment without any authorization. Timing matters too: Adyen warns that capturing after a scheme’s authorization validity period can cause capture failures and extra fees. Schedules differ by scheme, and Paymentology says Mastercard runs clearing six times a day.
Where does Omno use it?
Clearing happens between the acquirer, the card scheme and the issuer, so Omno does not take part in it. Omno keeps one transaction record per payment across connected PSPs, with webhooks, Get Transaction Info and data export that finance teams can match against each provider’s settlement reports.