Abstract: An apparatus for managing smart card transactions includes one or more communication interfaces for connecting to processors of vendors, customers and payment server processors and a processor configured to receive details of a transaction from a vendor processor, to transmit the transaction details to a smart card reader identified by the received details, to receive from a smart card within the smart card reader a cryptogram authorizing the transaction, to transfer the details of the transaction and the cryptogram to a payment server processor (PSP) to carry out the transaction, to receive confirmation of the transaction from the PSP through the interface and to transmit confirmation of the transaction to both the vendor processor and a customer processor.