Help Centre
Frequently asked questions
Answers to common questions about the platform, the supported transactions and getting started.
General
What does Baran Technology do?
Baran Technology is a fintech company operating in Afghanistan. It provides the payment platform that banks, electronic money institutions (EMIs) and payment institutions (PIs) use to run card and wallet transactions across ATMs, POS machines and mobile apps.
Who is the platform for?
Banks, EMIs and PIs. Each institution uses the parts of the platform it needs: the Adapter API for its channels, the Payment Engine for processing and Baran Switch for its connection to the national switch.
What do EMI and PI mean?
EMI stands for electronic money institution, a company licensed to issue electronic money such as a digital wallet. PI stands for payment institution, a company licensed to provide payment services.
Platform
How is the platform built?
It is a microservices architecture. POS machines, mobile apps and ATMs connect to the Baran Adapter API. The Adapter API passes transactions to the Baran Payment Engine, and Baran Switch connects the engine to APS, the national switch.
What is APS?
APS is the Afghanistan Payments System, the national switch. Banks, EMIs and PIs are connected to it, so a transaction sent to APS can reach the institution that has to answer it.
Does the platform support ISO 8583?
Yes. The platform fully supports ISO 8583, the message standard used by card payment networks.
Transactions
Which transactions are supported?
Balance Inquiry, Name Inquiry, Wallet to Card, Card to Wallet, Card to Card, Purchase, Bill Info, Save Payment, Cash In and Cash Out, together with the reversal of each one.
What do CNP and CP mean?
CNP means card not present: the transaction is made without the physical card, for example in a mobile app. CP means card present: the card is used at an ATM or a POS machine. Most transactions are supported both ways. Name Inquiry, Wallet to Card and Card to Wallet are card not present only, and Cash Out is card present only.
Do you support both the issuer side and the acquirer side?
Yes. Every supported transaction is available on the issuer side, where your institution answers for its own cards, accounts and wallets, and on the acquirer side, where your ATMs, POS machines and apps accept transactions.
What happens when a transaction does not complete?
Each supported transaction has a reversal. If a transaction cannot be completed, the reversal undoes it so that the customer and the institutions are left in the correct position.
Integration
How do our channels connect?
Through the Baran Adapter API. POS machines, mobile apps and ATMs all integrate with the same API.
Do you support digital wallets?
Yes. The platform supports digital wallets, including cash in, cash out and transfers between wallets and cards.
What does bank integration cover?
Full bank integration for Account to Card, together with ATM, POS and mobile app integration.
How do we get started?
Get in touch through the contact page. We will talk through your institution, the channels you want to connect and the transactions you need.
Security
How are cryptographic keys protected?
The platform is integrated with AWS CloudHSM. Cryptographic keys are kept and used inside hardware security modules.