Patent ID: 7069244

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for acquirer processing of a purchase card transaction submitted by a merchant, the method comprising: storing, in a database, a merchant card type list including a plurality of merchant card type records, each merchant card type record corresponding to one of a plurality of card types accepted by the merchant, each merchant card type record including a merchant-specific group of purchase card identifiers associated with that card type and a plurality of merchant-specific processing parameters defining processing rules for transactions for that card type, wherein a purchase card identifier is included in at most one of the merchant-specific groups of purchase card identifiers; receiving, at an acquiring server communicably coupled to the database, transaction data for the purchase card transaction, the transaction data including a purchase card identifier of a presented card; matching, by the acquiring server, the purchase card identifier of the presented card to one of the merchant-specific groups of purchase card identifiers in the merchant card type list in the database, thereby identifying a card type for the presented card; obtaining from the database, by the acquiring server, the merchant specific processing parameters of the merchant card type record corresponding to the identified card type; and processing and routing the purchase card transaction by the acquiring server in accordance with the processing rules defined by the merchant-specific processing parameters obtained from the database.