Aurora Switch

Aurora Switch is the center of the payments family: the ISO 8583 switch that authorizes and routes every card transaction. One switch plays three roles: issuer (it answers for the cards of its own bank), acquirer (it receives the transactions of the bank’s terminals and merchants) and hub (it connects institutions with one another). Keys and PINs are handled by an HSM.

Implemented Deployed and operating in the demonstration environment, against a simulated bank.

Language

The lessons of this system are written in Spanish and open with a notice at the top until their translation is published.

Where to start

This section explains how a payment switch works and how Aurora does it, with generic diagrams and without data from any bank.

1. What a payment switch does: the four parties to a purchase and the five jobs of the switch.
2. What Aurora Switch is: issuer, acquirer and hub in a single switch.
3. Authorization, reversal and advice: why silence is never a decline.
4. ISO 8583 in our own words, then how Aurora routes and stand-in authorization.

For quick lookups: message types and response codes.

To operate the switch day to day, the console is Aurora Office.

Learn by role

Role	Path
Switch operator	Operador del switch
ISO 8583 integrator	Integrador ISO 8583
PCI security officer	Oficial de seguridad PCI

Honest status

Aurora processes in its own environment against a simulated bank. No real bank is connected yet: the only real transaction on record is a purchase made with a CR100 reader on 28 September 2026. No page in this section claims PCI DSS compliance or a card-brand certification.