A payment processing emulator can enhance, and at the same time, simplify the process of integration between a payment gateway and various third parties (such as new merchants and resellers).
During integrations with the legacy systems merchants developed all integration-related functionality themselves and then tested it on special scenarios. The results of these tests had to be reviewed by the assigned specialists (real operators) on the payment gateway’s end.
In modern systems exchange of data between a merchant and the payment gateway during the integration is often handled by the payment processing emulator, implemented within the gateway itself. Emulators are particularly handy for payment gateway providers, servicing small businesses.
Modern-time emulators not only support standard retail transactions, but also emulate more complicated operations. Some of these operations are not even included into a standard sale cycle. Additional services, supported by payment processing emulators include 3 D secure, CSC verification, AVS, card account updater, BIN files, generation/emulation of chargebacks and ACH returns. Some functions of an emulator are targeted at real-time transaction processing, while others are relevant for batch processing.
As we see, an emulator allows the payment gateway to automatically handle the exchange of data with the merchants without attracting actual specialists for manual review of the integration process.
More detailed information on payment processing emulators is available in the respective article on Paylosophy.