Dynamic Currency Conversion

​Technical Overview​

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​​ Product OverviewAPI Browser

​Overview

DCC (Dynamic Currency Conversion) is a service for currency conversion at the time of the transaction. The cardholder will be presented with the option of paying in her/his own currency or the local currency. If own currency is chosen, the currency conversion will take place immediately during the purchase or withdrawal. If cardholder choose to pay in local currency, the currency conversion will take place at the issuing bank, when the purchase amount is withdrawal from the cardholder’s bank-account. 


Nets provides this DCC look-up service for Payment Service Providers (PSPs) servicing ATM owners, POS & eCom merchants in Europe having an acquiring agreement/contract with Concardis or Nets Merchant Services.

 

The DCC Look-up provides all DCC information needed for the cardholder interaction and for further processing of the authorisation and transactions at the terminal/ATM and PSP.

Nets DCC service is available in most of the EU region and can be offered to cardholders from 55+ countries.

 

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Context

 

The diagram below illustrates the overall transaction flow of dynamic currency conversion. This API provides the DCC look-up prior to the authorisation and clearing.

  

Before the customer/PSP can use the DCC look-up, the below agreeements (marked in the drawing as 'dotted lines') need to be in place between:

  • the PSP and Nets Issuer & eSecurity Services (Nets IeS) for transaction processing
  • the PSP and Nets Merchant Services (Nets MS) for using the API DCC look-up service 
  • the merchant/ATM owner and Nets Merchant Services (Nets MS) for settlement of transactions 

DCC flow newest newest new.PNG 

​Steps in the overall flow

1.  Cardholder buy goods/service or draw money using a payment card issued by either Visa or Mastercard

2. Terminal/ATM sends a DCC look-up request with first 10 digits of the cardnumber and the purchase amount in merchant/ATM local currency

3. Nets DCC Hub is checking whether the purchase is eligible for DCC. If not, the authorisation will be done in local currency of the merchant/ATM 

​​4. If 'yes', Nets DCC Hub is converting the purchase amount to the currency of the card

5. Nets DCC Hub sends back the converted amount together with the exchange rate, the conversion cost and other information related to the currency conversion

6. The terminal/ATM presents the choice of both amounts to the cardholder incl. the cost of currency conversion(*)

7. If the cardholder chooses to pay in the currency of the card, the authoristion will be added DCC information - if not, the authorisation will be in local currency without DCC information

8. The authorisation is send to the issuer for validation and if approved, terminal/ATM generates the cardholder reciept showing information from the currency conversion​

9. The financial transaction is created based on the authorisation and is send to issuer and acquirer for settlement of the cardholder and merchant

(*)

If the cardholder and merchant/ATM both belong to an EU-member country, the currency conversion cost must be presented to the cardholder as a percentage of the currency conversion rate issued by the European Central Bank.

If either the cardholder or the merchant /ATM belong to a non EU-member country, the currency conversion cost will be presented to the cardholder as a percentage of currency conversion rate used by Nets MS   

​Use case for tourist choosing DCC

  1. A tourist is visiting merchant's store. She has a Visa branded card with "USD" as card currency.
  2. The tourist buys souvenirs from the merchant worth 100€ with her card
  3. The POS initiates an eligibility request towards Nets DCC service
  4. If the card is eligible for DCC, Nets DCC Hub converts the amount in merchant's currency (100 EUR) to cardholder currency (130 USD) with the exchange rate for the day (1,300) and adds the currency conversion cost e.g. 3% to the sum (133,90$)   
  5. POS shows for the tourist the amount in both merchant's currency (100€) and cardholder's currency (133,90$)
  6. Tourist chooses to pay with USD. The cashier gives tourist a receipt containing both the EUR and USD amounts, FX rate and DCC mark-up used.
  7. Tourist is then settled (133,90$) and the merchant is settled (100€)

​Use case for tourist NOT choosing DCC

  1. A tourist is visiting merchant's store. She has a Visa branded card with "USD" as card currency.
  2. The tourist buys souvenirs from the merchant worth 100€ with her card
  3. The POS initiates an eligibility request towards Nets DCC service
  4. If the card is eligible for DCC, Nets DCC Hub converts the amount in merchant's currency (100 EUR) to cardholder currency (130 USD) with the exchange rate for the day (1,300) and adds the currency conversion cost e.g. 3% to the sum (133,90$)   
  5. POS shows for the tourist the amount in both merchant's currency (100€) and cardholder's currency (133,90$)
  6. Tourist chooses to pay with EUR. The cashier gives tourist a receipt containing the EUR amount
  7. Tourist is then settled (100€) plus a conversion fee by the issuing bank and the merchant is settled (100€)

​FAQ