Patent ID: 8646685

Claim:
A point of sale (POS) device, comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the POS device to perform operations comprising: receiving a first account identifier associated with a first account issued by a first account issuer; acquiring an allocation rule associated with the first account identifier; querying a payment system directory to locate a candidate payment system in accordance with the allocation rule, wherein the candidate payment system is associated with a first payment processor and is configured to process at least a first portion of a transaction in response to receiving payment information related to the transaction; transmitting a first payment authorization request related to the first portion of the transaction to the candidate payment system; based upon the allocation rule, forming a second payment authorization request that corresponds to a second payment processor and that specifies a second account identifier associated with a second account issued by a second account issuer that is different from the first account issuer; and receiving a payment authorization from the candidate payment system.