Why do some foreign transactions get declined?
Some foreign transactions get declined due to the issue of ‘Referral’ veneration. Referral generation means that while taking card authorization for foreign/local transactions, the merchant gets the message of a ‘Referral’. In this case the merchant has to contact its local acquiring bank which then contacts Citibank Pakistan for transaction approval. If the merchant or the local acquiring bank does not contact Citibank Pakistan for Referral approval the transaction does not get processed i.e. it neither gets approved nor declined.
