Acquiring

Payment Service Provider

Also: PSP

A vendor that provides payment-acceptance technology, gateway, vaulting, reporting, sometimes acquiring, under one contract.

PSP is a loose term that covers everything from pure gateways (no settlement) to full-stack acquirers. Stripe, Adyen, and Checkout.com are acquiring PSPs in most regions; Spreedly and Cardflo are orchestration PSPs that sit on top of multiple acquirers.

Related terms

Acquirer

The licensed bank or financial institution that holds the merchant's MID and settles card transactions on the merchant's behalf.

Payment gateway

A technical layer that encrypts card data, forwards authorisation requests to an acquirer, and returns the result to the merchant.

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