In order to ensure that the implementation of electronic commerce payment solutions for banks and their merchants is smooth, cost-effective, and timely, MasterCard ensures that MasterCard Gateway Services (MiGS) meets the most stringent criteria for ensuring effective payment processing:

•	uses shared infrastructure to spread costs
•	leverages existing payments infrastructure connectivity
•	incorporates payment technologies that provide a level of "future proofing" by easily adapting to new payment methods
•	makes it easy to deploy the payment system to the merchant base

 

The payment server architecture of MiGS provides the best industry solution for easy and rapid enablement of card payments processing.

One of the major advantages of MiGS over other payment gateways is the use of a processing model called "Switch-to-Issuer", which provides a global payment solution with higher availability than traditional models. It is compatible with many of the leading credit card processing providers including platforms for Advantage Processors, High Risk Payment Processors and Timeshare Merchant.

In the MiGS Switch-to-Issuer (S2I) model, transactions are not routed via the merchant's acquirer, as is the normal operation of point-of-sale terminals and other payment gateway solutions. Instead, MiGS routes a merchant's payment request directly to the card-issuing bank for authorization using the existing MasterCard international network BankNet. It also uses MasterCard's existing gateways to VisaNet and other scheme networks. This provides a more efficient, faster, and more available solution for merchants and retailers.