In payments, what do “upstream” and “downstream” mean?

Asked Jun 3, 2017· 1 answer

Faisal KhanAnswered Jun 3, 2017

Its pretty simple actually. Lets take an example of the ACH (Automated Clearing House) industry.

The hierarchy would look something like this:

For Acme ACH Processing - their upstream processor is Paymentech (JP Morgan Chase)
For Paymentech - their downstream aggregator (or Customer) is Acme ACH.

Payment Processors Payment Service Providers (PSP)

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