Glossary
Multi-currency processing
Multi-currency processing is running payments in several currencies at once: the payer is charged in their own currency, the payment goes to a provider account in that currency, the merchant's balance is kept per currency, and the business settles in the currencies it chooses, converting where it decides to. It avoids conversion at the checkout, which lifts approvals and lowers the payer's cost, and it moves the exchange rate question to the business's treasury, where it belongs.
The pieces
Terminals per currency at acquirers and local providers; prices per currency on the merchant’s side; balances per merchant and currency in the ledger; settlement currencies agreed with each provider; a reference rate for reporting everything in one base currency; and rules for when the business converts, such as paying a merchant in one currency from balances in several.
Where conversion happens
Either not at all, when the payer’s currency matches a terminal and the merchant is paid in it; at the provider, when the terminal settles in another currency at the provider’s rate; or at the business, when it converts between its own accounts. Each choice has a cost and a rate, and the reports should show which applied to each payment.
On the platform
Tranzify keeps terminals, balances, fees and settlements per currency, routes a payment to a terminal in its currency where the client has one, uses central bank reference rates for reporting in a base currency, and records the settlement currency and amount the provider reported next to the payment’s own.
Updated: 2026-11-08