OCT (Original Credit Transaction)

✅ What is an OCT?

An Original Credit Transaction (OCT) allows funds to be pushed to a recipient’s Visa card account—reversing the typical flow of funds. This enables real-time or near-real-time payouts to end-users globally, as long as their issuing bank and region support inbound OCTs.

Unlike standard card payments (where the cardholder pays the merchant), OCTs allow merchants to initiate payments to consumers—perfect for use cases like payouts, refunds, commissions, winnings, or transfers.

🧾 OCT with Paynetics: Scope and Capabilities

Paynetics supports OCT functionality as part of our acquiring solution and only for approved merchant categories.

Supported Transaction Types (Use Cases)

Merchants can be approved for one or multiple use cases based on their MCC and regulatory footprint.

💡 Use Case Breakdown

1. Account to Account (A)

Funds moved between two accounts belonging to the same person across platforms or institutions.
📌 Example: A user transfers funds from a trading app to their own Visa debit card.

2. Funds Disbursement (F)

Bulk payouts initiated by a corporate or fintech for use cases like:

• Salary advances

• Loan disbursement

• Cashback or affiliate rewards

📌 Typically used by payroll, lenders, or gig platforms.

3. Person to Person (P)

Card-to-card transfer between two individuals with distinct identities.
📌 Example: A user sends €50 to a friend’s Visa card.

4. Wallet Transfers (W)

Transfers into digital wallets or apps pre-staged for payouts.
📌 Example: A user transfers their funds from a merchant’s account into their Visa-linked wallet.

5. Gaming & Gambling (G)

Allows for winnings or refund payouts from legal, regulated gambling merchants.
📌 Example: A customer withdraws €200 from their online casino account.

6. Cryptocurrency (C)

Used for off-ramping from crypto holdings into fiat.
📌 Example: A user cashes out from a crypto platform to their Visa card (after conversion to fiat).
📌 Available only for licensed and approved partners with MCC 6051 or similar.

🌍 Visa OCT – Supported Countries by Use Case

Below is a simplified view of countries where Visa allows inbound OCT transactions, grouped by use case:

🟢 Account to Account / Funds Disbursement / P2P / Wallet Transfers

These use cases share broad support in the following countries:

• Europe & UK: Austria, Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Poland, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain

• MENA: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Morocco

• Africa: South Africa, Kenya

• Americas: Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile

• APAC: Australia, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, Pakistan

• Other: Ukraine, Uzbekistan

🟡 Gaming & Gambling

• Austria, Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain

🟡 Cryptocurrency

• Austria, Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain

⚠️ These use cases require explicit scheme and underwriting approval and may be blocked by some issuers or regulators.

🔁 OCT Money Flow Example

Here’s a standard Visa OCT transaction flow in the Paynetics setup:

📄 P2P Money Flow Example (simplified diagram from internal PDF):

1. Sender initiates transfer via wallet or API (Paynetics merchant)

2. Paynetics routes the transaction to Visa

3. Visa routes to the recipient’s issuer

4. Recipient sees funds posted to their eligible Visa card

⚙️ Integration & Technical Onboarding

• Access via Paynetics Acquiring API

• Pre-approved transaction codes used for classification (A, F, P, W, G, C)

• No card pull involved—only push-to-card capabilities

❗Cardholder card number (PAN) must be securely tokenized or passed encrypted.

🔐 Compliance & Risk

• All merchants are subject to underwriting, scheme registration, and risk checks

• For gaming and crypto, issuer or Visa blocks may apply even in eligible countries

• Approved merchants must fund their OCT account via SEPA / SEPA Instant / Faster Payments / BISERA

📈 Reporting & Settlement

• Daily reconciliation available via SFTP

• Configurable fee models: flat, % or blended

• Settlement in supported currencies: EUR, GBP, BGN

📄 Final Notes

• Visa OCT is a powerful tool for merchant disbursements and payouts—but success depends on clear use case mapping, scheme approval, and compliance onboarding.

• The above list serves as a reference, not a guaranteed list of enabled BINs or schemes. Please validate live eligibility for sensitive use cases (e.g. crypto, gaming) before merchant onboarding.