Payment facilitators

Payment facilitators are intermediaries that provide processing and financial settlement services to receive card payments. In other words, they help mediate financial transactions between shoppers and sellers and between sellers and acquirers, such as Cielo.

Payment facilitators are registered with the card brands according to categories. In Cielo e-commerce, we support the following categories:

• Sub-acquirers and marketplaces;
• Wallets (digital wallets), which are subdivided into:
  • SDWO for purchase arrangements;
  • SDWO for fund transfer arrangements;

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Payment facilitators are subject to Cielo’s internal rules as well as regulations from the Central Bank, Abecs, and card brands. Each of these entities may update their rules at any time, and the facilitator is required to comply with new rules to continue operating.

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Cielo Acquirer

During the accreditation process, Cielo performs procedures to identify and classify the facilitator according to their activity. The facilitator is classified according to business model, brand, and payment arrangement, and, based on this classification, is registered with the brands and subject to different rules. The entire accreditation process is accompanied by the Cielo commercial manager.

Payment creation

When submitting a request to create a payment via the Gateway de Pagamento, you must send the parameters described in the Cielo documentation and perform messaging tests in the specified sandbox. If the specific fields for the payment facilitator category are not sent in the transactional messaging, the response will be “Invalid XML.” Additionally, Cielo or the chosen acquirer may request additional specific fields related to certain products, depending on the business model and classification, such as dynamic MCC and Soft Descriptor, as determined by the brands, Central Bank, and Abecs.

See below for the different categories of payment facilitators.

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Sub-acquirers and marketplaces

Sub-acquirers are participants that accredit merchants from specific business sectors in order to offer capture solutions better suited to their needs. To do this, the sub-acquirer connects to Cielo (the acquirer) and operates as an intermediary between the acquirer and the merchants. This model is widely used by smaller merchants and niche businesses, as they can offer more customized services.

Marketplaces are companies that advertise third-party products or services on their websites and need to accredit their sellers (sub-sellers) and transfer sales amounts to their clients (sellers).

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Settlement of sales amounts

The acquirer settles to the sub-acquirer’s or marketplace’s bank account, and they transfer the sales amounts to their clients (third parties).

To ensure transparency and traceability of financial transactions, sub-acquirers and marketplaces must provide specific data when creating payments via e-commerce. It is mandatory to send:

• SoftDescriptor;
• Sub-merchant name;
• Full address (street, city, state, country) of the sub-merchant;
• CNPJ/CPF of the sub-merchant;
• Corporate name;
• Phone number;
• Facilitator ID, as registered with the brand;
• Sub-merchant ID; and
• Sub-merchant MCC.

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See the API Reference for an example request with all required fields for sub-acquirers and marketplaces.

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Wallets (digital wallets)

Digital wallets (wallets) allow the shopper to register their credit or debit card on the platform and, through the platform, make payments to wallet partner clients. They also allow payments via QR Code and using the card to deposit balance into the wallet for later use.

There are two classifications:

• Staged Digital Wallet Operators (SDWO) - purchase arrangement
• Staged Digital Wallet Operators (SDWO) - fund transfer arrangement

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The Consumer Bill Pay Services (CBPS) type from Visa is now classified as SDWO for fund transfer arrangements.

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SDWO for fund transfer arrangement

This is when the shopper uses a card (card not present) linked to an SDWO digital wallet to withdraw or send funds, without the immediate purpose of acquiring goods or services.

Some examples of fund transfers are mobile top-ups, public transport card top-ups, and lottery ticket purchases, among others.

The Gateway de Pagamento supports six types of SDWO for fund transfer arrangements. For each type, a [specific MCC must be sent, which may vary by brand].

* Currently, the Gateway de Pagamento does not support SDWO for fund transfer arrangements for cryptocurrencies.

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See the API Reference for an example request with all required fields for SDWO for fund transfer arrangements and the table with MCC values for each transfer type.