One of the biggest and most frustrating mysteries in the world of payments and credit cards is the phenomenon known as the "technical decline." It occurs when a customer tries to make a credit card payment at a terminal and the transaction is rejected by the system, despite the customer having sufficient funds and available credit.
In such cases, using a different card will usually allow the transaction to go through normally. The decline is described as "technical" because no party can say with certainty why the system was unable to process the transaction. As a result, large numbers of transactions are lost, causing significant losses for businesses worldwide.
AI solution for the payments industry's 'black hole'
Now, artificial intelligence appears to be offering a solution to this familiar problem. Fintech company BridgerPay, founded by two Israeli entrepreneurs and registered in Cyprus, is focusing precisely on this payments "black hole." The company has developed a smart system that reroutes each transaction in real time among dozens of international and Israeli payment processors until it finds one able to approve it, thereby overcoming the technical failure.
According to company data, in the past year alone the system recovered and processed international transactions worth $500 million that otherwise would have failed entirely. More than 10% of the value of the recovered transactions originated in Israel, representing a significant volume of purchases that ultimately went through.
$55 million returned to Israeli businesses
An analysis of the Israeli data found that the system overcame failures and enabled financial transactions worth $16.5 million to be completed in Israel. In the tourism industry, transactions worth nearly $13 million were recovered. At one Israeli travel website alone, for example, the system rescued transactions totaling $500,000.
The system also monitored and recovered $11 million worth of e-commerce transactions, involving online purchases through websites and apps, as well as $8.2 million in transactions at gaming companies and another $6.6 million at software companies.
'Billions of dollars in infrastructure gaps worldwide'
BridgerPay co-founder and CEO Ran Cohen commented on the figures. "The data we have revealed in Israel point to a market failure that is hurting local businesses, with $55 million returned to businesses in the past year alone thanks to transaction rerouting," Cohen said. "This is money that would have gone to waste because of technical failures. At Israel's ROI Summit, to be held in Tel Aviv on Sept. 9, we will show industry leaders how artificial intelligence is finally opening this black box, and reveal how our strategic collaboration with Israel's national payment infrastructure, Shva, is reducing failures and enabling businesses to connect to 1,000 global payment providers."
Nati Harpaz, an investor and chairman of the company's board, added: "When we analyze the half-billion dollars the system recovered globally, the picture clearly reveals the infrastructure gaps around the world. Regions such as Latin America and Africa are suffering the most, but even developed markets are losing money because of communications instability.
"Our role in the global macroeconomy is to serve as an intelligent technological safety net that solves these complex payment challenges in real time."
