The Maze: On November 9, payment provider Global Payments added a way for online merchants using its Adaptive Authentication service to share more information with the bank that approves or declines a Visa payment. The new connection is initially available for eligible domestic purchases in the U.S. and Canada.
When a customer pays online, the merchant sends a payment request through its provider and the card network to the bank that issued the card. With the new connection, Global Payments can send additional information about the purchase to Visa. The network puts selected details into the payment request it sends to the bank. That gives the bank more to go on when an order looks unusual. If the extra information helps it recognize a genuine purchase, the merchant could keep a sale that would otherwise be lost.
Video: Visa. Visa’s July 2026 explainer shows how its broader program sends checkout details from the merchant through Visa to the cardholder’s bank.
The Details:
More information arrives before the decision. Visa calls the connection Intelligent Data Exchange. In its broader data-sharing program, Visa lists a device identifier and billing address among the information a merchant can provide. Think of a customer ordering from a new location. A bank might find the extra details useful in deciding whether the payment looks genuine. The rollout announcement leaves open which information Global Payments sends. The bank still makes the approval decision.
A new option inside the existing checkout service. Global Payments’ Adaptive Authentication service already chooses among ways to check whether the buyer is the cardholder. One option, called 3-D Secure, can ask the buyer to verify their identity. The new Visa connection gives the platform another way to supply information without adding a prompt of its own. The wider service is available globally. This specific option starts with eligible domestic transactions in the two countries, and the company did not publish a list of participating issuers or detailed eligibility rules.
The reported approval gains come from earlier deployments. Global Payments says merchants typically saw approval rates improve by 4–6% with earlier deployments of its data-sharing and transaction screening tools. The company did not give a merchant breakdown or a comparable result for the newly added connection. The number tells merchants what the provider says happened under earlier setups. It leaves open how often the new route will turn a decline into an approval.
MarketMaze Take: The first number worth asking for is how much of a merchant’s online Visa traffic qualifies. An improvement on a small slice of payments can disappear in the sitewide average. A change in the mix of customers or banks can move that same average even if the new connection contributes little. A useful test would compare similar eligible payments on the first attempt, where possible by issuing bank, with and without the new route.
Count customer verification prompts and fraud alongside approvals. If more legitimate orders go through with fewer shoppers interrupted, the merchant gains sales from the traffic it already has. If fraud rises, some of the additional approvals can turn into losses later. That trade-off is what the merchant needs to see before putting any expected sales lift into a forecast.
