Nopal Insights

Perspectives on the future of payments.

Insights, practical guides, and perspectives on payment infrastructure, orchestration, and financial technology.

Acceptance and operations

Pending payments in LATAM: why they pile up and when they should expire

Many LATAM payment methods confirm later, so pending piles up, and this guide shows how to split it and when each method should expire.

8 min read

Card, SPEI, Pix, Cash voucher → Pending → Paid, Expired, StuckCardSPEIPixCash voucherPendingstatus check · expiry rulePaidExpiredStuck

Acceptance and operations

How to calculate payment approval rate correctly

Approval rate is approved payments divided by approved plus declined. Pending payments and technical errors stay out of it. Here is the formula, a worked example, and the mistakes that make the number lie.

8 min read

Approval rate example: 52% when counted naively, 74.3% when counted correctly

Acceptance and operations

Why a declined payment rarely tells you why

Decline reasons come back in a different format from every PSP. Here is why that hurts your numbers, and how to separate real declines from everything else.

6 min read

"Do not honor", "Error 05", "Saldo insuficiente" → One list of reasons → Bank decline, Data problem, Technical error. Same "declined" label, three different problems."Do not honor""Error 05""Saldo insuficiente"One list of reasonsraw PSP responses, mappedBank declinecustomer or issuer said noData problemthe request was invalidTechnical errornobody refused anythingSAME "DECLINED" LABEL, THREE DIFFERENT PROBLEMS.