First, customers provide their payment information in a secure payment gateway, and that data is sent to a payment processor for verification. From there, the processor sends signals directly to the relevant financial institutions so they can check if there are sufficient funds and whether or not to proceed with their transaction. If everything checks out, the financial institution approves the transaction. It sends back an approval signal to the payment processor, who informs the merchant that their transaction has been approved before finally receiving payment from the financial institution. Many don't realize that this process takes mere seconds once initiated by your customer and almost instantaneously takes place once initiated on an e-commerce website. Customers typically don't give much thought to it since they expect a smooth and effortless transaction experience on such platforms.