How is a new provider or payment method added for a merchant?
A contract links a merchant account to a connector, whether payment, risk, authentication or network tokenization, and carries the credentials, the mapping and the configuration for that connector. Each contract type shows the sections it needs, from connection settings to provider-specific identifiers. Activation validation is specific to the contract type, so the checks run against what that provider actually requires.
In detail
Through a contract. A contract links a merchant account to a connector and carries the credentials, the mapping and the configuration that connector needs.
Contract types
Contracts cover more than payment processing. A connector can be a payment provider, a risk service, an authentication service or a network tokenization partner. Each contract type shows the sections it needs, from connection settings to provider-specific identifiers, so the person configuring it sees only what applies.
Activation
Activation validation is specific to the contract type, so the checks run against what that provider actually requires. The activation test runs against the staged configuration and returns an execution summary with the provider result. Only a contract that passes can carry live traffic.
After activation
Once active, the contract becomes available to routing rules, fallback policies and checkout. Exclusion rules can keep it out of specific cases, such as certain currencies or issuer countries, without deactivating it. The contract detail then shows the routing rules that reference it and the volume they send.
For your merchants, adding a payment method or a provider is a configuration in the Console rather than a development project. For you, every contract follows the same governance and audit trail, whichever provider it connects.