Acquiring
Acquirer
The licensed bank or financial institution that holds the merchant's MID and settles card transactions on the merchant's behalf.
The acquirer is the scheme-licensed entity that boards the merchant, holds the merchant account (MID), receives authorisation and clearing from the schemes, settles funds to the merchant, and bears the regulatory and credit risk. Many gateways and PSPs are not acquirers, they front-end a relationship with one.
Related terms
A unique identifier issued by an acquirer that ties transactions to a specific merchant account.
The bank that issues a payment card to a cardholder and authorises or declines transactions on it.
A vendor that provides payment-acceptance technology, gateway, vaulting, reporting, sometimes acquiring, under one contract.
A technical layer that encrypts card data, forwards authorisation requests to an acquirer, and returns the result to the merchant.
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