What is an acquirer in banking?

Acquirer. The acquirer, also known as the acquiring or merchant bank, is the financial institution that maintains a merchant’s account in order to accept credit cards. The acquirer settles card transactions for a merchant into their account. Sometimes the payment processor and the acquirer are one and the same.

How does an acquirer work?

Merchant acquiring is an integral part of card payment transactions processing. Acquirers enable merchants to accept card payments by acting as a link between merchants, issuers, and payment networks—providing authorization, clearing and settlement, dispute management, and information services to merchants.

What is an Authorisation fee?

Authorisation Fees Description: The additional charge for every authorisation on every transaction.

Can issuer and acquirer banks be the same?

Can issuer and acquirer banks be the same? Yes. Many banks offer issuing services to consumers, as well as acquiring services to merchants.

What is an acquiring license?

But what exactly is an acquirer, and why do you need one? The acquirer – also known as a credit card bank, acquiring bank, or merchant – is a bank or financial institution that’s licensed as a member of a card association (like Visa or Mastercard), that creates and maintains the merchant’s bank account.

What is the difference between acquiring and issuing bank?

The terms acquiring and issuing refer not to specific banks, but to where those banks are in the transaction flow. Put simply, the acquiring bank is the bank on the merchant end of the transaction, and the issuing bank is the cardholder or consumer’s bank. Banks can and commonly do hold both roles.

How much is an FCA Licence?

FEES 3 Annex 1 Authorisation fees payable