Issuing funding sources

Your issuing balance is the pool of funds that authorizes and settles card transactions. Your funding choice affects liquidity management, reconciliation, and financial controls.

You can fund your issuing balance using two sources: your Airwallex Wallet or the Platform Liquidity Program (PLP). Both sources support multi-currency transactions and direct billing in supported currencies.

Funding sources

Platform Liquidity Program

The PLP enables you to fund your customers' card transactions instantly from a central pool of funds you manage. This just-in-time funding approach eliminates the need to pre-load individual customers' Connected Accounts, simplifying your operations and improving cash flow.

Key terminology

Understanding these core concepts helps you work effectively with the PLP:

• PLP Settlement Account: A dedicated Airwallex account that holds the funds for your PLP. This is the central pool from which all customer transactions are funded.
• PLP Limit: The total amount available for transactions across all Connected Accounts linked to your PLP. This is represented as available_amount in API responses. It equals the funds in your PLP Settlement Account minus pending transactions that have not yet settled. Each currency you hold has a separate limit.
• Program Spending Account: Links your Connected Accounts to your PLP. Each Connected Account requires a Program Spending Account to access PLP funding.

How PLP works

The PLP separates your platform's operational liquidity from individual cardholder spending while maintaining centralized control. Here's how funds flow through the system:

Setup phase:

1. Your Account Executive creates a PLP linked to your account with a unique program_id
2. You create Program Spending Accounts to link Connected Accounts to the PLP
3. You fund the PLP Settlement Account, which establishes your PLP Limit
4. Cards are created with a funding_source_id that links them to a Program Spending Account

Transaction phase:

When a customer uses a card linked to the PLP, Airwallex identifies the associated Program Spending Account and checks the PLP Limit. If sufficient funds exist in the appropriate currency, the transaction is authorized and the PLP Limit is reduced. The customer's Connected Account balance is updated to reflect the transaction.

Settlement phase:

On a daily basis, pending transactions settle against the PLP Settlement Account funds. This moves funds out of the PLP Settlement Account and updates the total_amount for each currency. The difference between total_amount and available_amount represents your pending transactions.

Multi-currency support and direct billing

Airwallex-issued cards support transactions in any Visa-supported currency. Direct billing debits funds in the transaction currency without hidden charges or conversion fees where supported. See supported regions and currencies for the complete list.

Home currency

Every Airwallex account has a default home currency, which is typically the local currency where your business is registered. For example, AUD for Australia or GBP for the United Kingdom. However, you can configure any direct billing currency as your home currency to better align with your primary business operations.

The home currency serves as the fallback funding source when direct billing is not available for the transaction currency. This ensures transactions can complete even when you don't maintain balances in every possible currency.

Transaction flows

Purchase flow

When a cardholder makes a purchase, Airwallex determines which currency wallet to debit:

1. Check for direct billing support: If the transaction currency supports direct billing and your funding source has sufficient balance in that currency, funds are debited directly. For example, a GBP transaction debits your GBP wallet.

2. Fallback to home currency: If direct billing is not supported for the transaction currency, Airwallex checks if your home currency balance can cover the purchase. If sufficient balance exists, funds are debited from your home currency wallet at the prevailing foreign exchange rate. For example, if your home currency is AUD and you make an AED transaction, your AUD wallet is debited based on Visa's daily exchange rate.

Only funds from a single currency are used per transaction.

PLP transaction flow

When using the PLP, transaction authorization follows a similar currency logic but draws from your centralized PLP Limit:

1. Identify funding source: Airwallex uses the card's funding_source_id to identify the associated Program Spending Account and the PLP.

2. Check direct billing: If the transaction currency supports direct billing and the available_amount for that currency in the PLP is sufficient, the transaction is authorized and the PLP Limit for that currency is reduced.

3. Fallback to home currency: If direct billing is not supported or the available_amount for the transaction currency is insufficient, Airwallex checks the available_amount for your home currency. If sufficient, that currency's limit is debited based on the prevailing foreign exchange rate.

The customer's Connected Account balance is updated to reflect the transaction, but the actual funds come from your centralized PLP Settlement Account rather than the individual Connected Account.

Refund flow

Refunds follow the same currency logic:

• When a merchant refunds a transaction that was processed in a direct billing currency, the refund is credited in that same transaction currency.
• For all other scenarios, if automatic currency conversion was enforced during the original purchase, the refund is automatically converted back to your home currency.

Contact your Airwallex Account Manager to configure alternative refund behavior.

See also

To implement the PLP for your platform, see Set up the Platform Liquidity Program.