Mastercard has recently introduced a new service known as the Payment Optimization Platform (POP), designed to boost approval rates for merchants.

Mission and Early Results

The company’s objective with POP is to leverage data-driven intelligence to enhance transaction approvals. Initial pilot results have demonstrated an impressive increase of 9% to 15% in conversion rates for participating businesses.

The network-based solution integrates Mastercard’s extensive data resources, refining authorization messages and increasing merchant approval success. Following the successful conclusion of the pilot phase, Mastercard intends to incorporate advanced AI technologies into POP.

Moving forward, Mastercard plans to collaborate with several payment service providers including Adyen, NEOPAY, Tap Payments, and Worldpay, allowing them to utilize the POP service for optimized payment experiences, ensuring uninterrupted operations, and boosting revenues.

The widespread deployment of POP is anticipated towards the latter part of 2025 with further expansion into additional acceptance partners.

Addressing Challenges Through Data-Driven Insights

While merchants strive to simplify payment processes and maximize transaction approvals, obstacles can arise due to limited data access and reliance on multiple stakeholders. Mastercard’s POP leverages real-time data from numerous transactions to identify areas for improvement and detect potential issues.

The service evaluates over a trillion combinations of various data points to generate optimal authorization decisions in near real-time, offering actionable insights that contribute to scaling approval rates. Through continuous learning and training on the most recent transaction attributes and authorisation trends, Mastercard aims to refine payment processes for both consumers and merchants.