How the automatic payment system works

The system of automatic payments (payouts automation) is a combination of business rules, a financial ledger, payment providers and monitoring, which translates applications for withdrawal of funds into reliable and quick transfers 24/7. The goal is to reduce manual labor, reduce errors and ensure predictable SLA with strict risk control (AML/anti-fraud/RG), reconciliation and compliance.

What the system consists of: key modules

1. Payout Orchestrator

Accepts the application, checks the rules and routes it to the best provider/rails. Knows how to retrai, queues and degradation scenarios.

2. Risk & Compliance Gate

Scoring recipient and transactions: KYC/AML, limits, sanctions/PEP, behavior, device-signals, RG (for iGaming/fintech).

3. Wallet/Ledger

Accounting for available balance, blocking, write-off when creating a payment, status "sent/credited/canceled," double entry and idempotence.

4. Provider Connectors

Adapters to rails: cards (Visa/Mastercard OCT), A2A/Open Banking, local fast payments (SEPA Inst, Faster Payments, PIX, PayID), bank transfers (ACH/SWIFT/SEPA), wallets, crypto.

5. Reconciliation & Reporting

Auto-reconciliation of provider reports with a ledger, day closing, error logs, uploads for accounting/taxes and audit trails.

6. Notifications & Support

Webhooks/notifications to the client, statuses in the personal account, support playbooks and response templates.

7. Observability

Logs, metrics, alerts: p95 enrollment time, approve rate, share of retrains, refusals for reasons (limit, risk, provider).

Payment rails: when to choose what

Cards (OCT/Visa Direct, Mastercard Send): Fast Funds-backed minutes, global reach; need PAN/token, increased risk requirements.

A2A/Open Banking (Pay by Bank): instant or fast, low cost, but bank/jurisdiction coverage depends.

Fast local transfers: SEPA Instant (EU), FPS (UK), PIX (BR), PayID/NPP (AU) - high April and low fees in local markets.

ACH/SEPA/SWIFT (classic): cheap, but longer; suitable for large amounts/corporate payments.

Wallets/e-money: instantly inside the provider's ecosystem.

Cryptocurrencies: Fast cross-border payouts for on-chain risk scoring and compliance with jurisdictional policies.

💡 Practice: keep at least 2-3 alternative channels in key markets and route according to rules/BIN/country/amount.

End-to-end life cycle

1. Creation of a request → the user/business indicates the amount and details (card/account/PayID/address).

2. Pre-checks → KYC/AML, sanctions/PEP, amount/frequency limits, behavioral risk.

3. Blocking funds in the ledger → reducing the available balance, assigning an idempotent key.

4. Routing → selection of rails and provider by matrix: GEO, currency, amount, load, price, SLA, fault tolerance.

5. Sending → request to the provider; waiting for synchronous response (accepted/failed) and asynchronous status (settled).

6. Status update → webhooks/polling; "Success/Failure/During"; retreats by idempotency.

7. Reconciliation → reference matches, day-end closing, reports, adjustments.

8. Notifications → the customer sees "Paid" and the expected enrollment window; support - technical details.

Risks and controls

AML/CTF: sanctions, PEP, negative media; Threshold SoF/SoW checks SAR/STR on suspicion; "tipping-off" prohibition.

Anti-fraud/APP-scam: limits for new recipients, "cool-off," velocity-control, device-fingerprinting, white/black lists, geo-rules.

RG (responsible game): day/week limits, pauses, closed loop "depozit→vyvod the same method."

Operating rooms: duplicates/repeated clicks - treated with idempotency and transactional locks; downtime provider - auto-feiler and queues.

Legal: compliance with license/agreements with banks/networks; personal data protection.

Architectural patterns of reliability

Idempotency everywhere: application key + deduplication in the ledger/orchestrator.

Queues (FIFO) and "deferred tasks": resistance to bursts and provider timeouts.

Saga/Outbox patterns: consistency between ledger database and external submissions.

Retrays with backoff: only for "temporary" errors; clear retryable/non-retryable matrix.

Feature flags/Kill switch: fast transfer of traffic to the backup channel.

Mirror providers: A/B routing, canary inclusion.

Timeouts and delay budget: target p95 (e.g. ≤ 5-15 min for "instant" rails).

Reconciliation

Single reference: 'payout _ id' matches in the payment body and in the ledger.

Three-way reconciliation: provider ledger ↔ webhooks ↔ bank reports.

Anomalies: duplicates, "frozen" statuses, discrepancy between amounts/commissions - auto-test and analysis tasks.

Period-end closing: currency and provider rollup, exchange rate differences, adjustment journals.

Manage limits and rules

By recipient: daily/weekly amounts, the number of new details in the period.

According to the method: maximums on the OCT/A2A/ACH, cross-border prohibition in high risk.

By amount: multi-stage confirmation (2FA/manual review) for large payments.

By time: night windows - reduced limits or additional verification.

By risk: dynamic multipliers of scoring limits.

UX best practices

Transparent enrollment window: "usually within X minutes/hours."

Props mask: show the last 4 digits of the card/account mask before sending.

Real-time statuses: Pending → Sent → Credited/Denied (with clear reason).

Payment journal: history, references, dispute documents.

Security: 2FA confirmation and "pause-to-confirm" for large amounts.

Metrics and Objectives (KPIs)

Speed: p50/p95 time to "Credited" on rails and banks.

Reliability: the share of successful payments, the percentage of retrays, the frequency of provider errors.

Cost: average transaction fee, cost of refusals (support, repeated attempts).

Risk: FPR/TPR anti-fraud alerts, share of "keshin→keshaut" without a game, SAR-rate.

Customer: NPS by cashout, share of calls "where is the money? ».

Frequent mistakes

1. No idempotency → duplicate payouts on second click/timeout.

2. Single Provider to Market → Link Degradation = Stop Output.

3. A weak bundle → "lost" transactions and manual crutches.

4. Blind retreats → aggravation of locks/limits at the provider.

5. Lack of RG/AML bundles → quick cashouts without checking sources and limits.

6. Opaque UX → an increase in tickets and discontent with regular delays.

Auto Pay Start Checklist

1. Describe the risk and limit policy (by customer/method/geo/amount).

2. Choose 2-3 rails to market (card + local fast transfer + A2A).

3. Implement idempotency, queues, retrays and kill-switch.

4. Connect provider webhooks and polling in case they fall.

5. Set up a summary and daily reports (finance/accounting).

6. Enter KYC/AML/RG gates before sending payouts.

7. Collect KPI dashboards and alerts (SLA, failures, cost).

8. Test canary rollout and degradation scenarios.

9. Train the support and release playbooks for typical failures.

10. Conduct a security-review (secrets, accesses, encryption, logs).

Mini-FAQ

Is it "instant" always?

No, it isn't. "Instant" depends on the rails and the recipient's bank. Keep an honest SLA window and alternative channels.

Is manual compliance mandatory?

For high amounts/risks, yes. The combination of auto-scoring and selective manual review provides a balance of speed and safety.

Is it possible to pay to where there was no deposit?

It is better to comply with closed-loop. Otherwise, AML risks and questions from the provider/bank grow.

Do I need a separate ledger?

Yes I did. Accounting ≠ transaction ledger. We need a system with idempotency, double entry and clear statuses.

Automatic payments work reliably when three layers are connected: smart routing (orchestrator) → hard risk contour (KYC/AML/RG, limits, anti-fraud) → accounting and reconciliation discipline (ledger, webhooks, reports, metrics). Add duplicate rails, idempotency and transparent UX - and the system will pay quickly, predictably and safely, even under high load and when individual providers fail.