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The unified orchestration layer for wallets and alternative payments
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The secure repository for all your payment methods
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Workflow-driven payments intelligence for smarter routing and higher auth rates
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A flexible fraud and authentication layer. Instantly add advanced fraud tools and 3DS
One integration to sell inside ChatGPT, Gemini, and every agentic platform
The visual workflow builder that ties fraud, identity, and payment routing together in one place
The unified orchestration layer for wallets and alternative payments
The secure repository for all your payment methods
Workflow-driven payments intelligence for smarter routing and higher auth rates
A flexible fraud and authentication layer. Instantly add advanced fraud tools and 3DS
One integration to sell inside ChatGPT, Gemini, and every agentic platform
The visual workflow builder that ties fraud, identity, and payment routing together in one place
Data Residency
Data residency is the principle or legal requirement that certain types of data, including payment and financial data, must be physically stored or processed within a defined geographic jurisdiction. Data residency requirements are imposed by governments, regulators, and sometimes customers, typically out of concerns about sovereignty, privacy, and regulatory oversight over sensitive information.
In payments, data residency requirements can affect where Primary Account Number (PAN) data and transaction records may be stored, which cloud regions or data centers a payment provider may use to serve a given market, and how cross-border data transfers are handled. The patchwork of national and regional data residency requirements is one of the practical complexities of operating a global payment business.
Countries with significant data localization requirements include Russia (which requires personal data on Russian citizens to be stored in Russia), China (which has extensive data localization requirements under the Personal Information Protection Law and the Cybersecurity Law), India (which has requirements for certain financial data under RBI guidelines), and Brazil (whose LGPD data protection law influences data handling requirements). The EU's GDPR does not technically require data to stay within the EU but restricts transfers to countries that do not provide adequate data protection, which has a similar practical effect for many organizations.
For payments businesses, data residency requirements can affect the choice of Payments Orchestration Platform, specifically, whether the platform can store and process data within required jurisdictions, and the design of payment infrastructure in regulated markets.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does data residency differ from data sovereignty?
Data residency refers to where data is physically stored, which country's or jurisdiction's servers hold the data. Data sovereignty refers to the legal framework under which data is governed, which country's laws apply to the data. In practice, these concepts are closely related but not identical: data stored in a jurisdiction is typically subject to that jurisdiction's laws (sovereignty follows residency), but data sovereignty can also be claimed by a government over its citizens' data regardless of where it is physically stored (as with some interpretations of GDPR).
Does storing payment data in the cloud create data residency challenges?
Potentially, yes. Cloud infrastructure is inherently distributed, unless a cloud provider's architecture is explicitly configured for data residency, data may be stored or replicated across multiple geographic regions. Major cloud providers (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) offer data residency controls that restrict storage and processing to specified regions, but these controls must be explicitly configured and may carry additional cost.
What should a payments business do before entering a market with data residency requirements?
Conduct a regulatory analysis of the target market's data localization requirements before committing to a payment infrastructure design. Engage legal counsel with local regulatory expertise. Assess whether your current Payments Orchestration Platform and payment partners can store and process data within the required jurisdiction.
Related Terms
