468 billion payment card transactions are processed globally each year

"Behind every one of these transactions, whether the card is swiped, scanned or tapped, there are a number of different players working together to ensure a swift and frictionless transactional experience, both on the issuing and acquiring side.

Once stuck in the back, pureplay processors have emerged as indispensable parties in the modern payment infrastructure.

Acquirers and issuers are often assumed to have in-house processing capabilities. Generally factors such as control, cost, scalability, capabilities, regulatory compliance, and technological advancements influence the players decision to maintain processing operations internally or outsource to third-party processors.

𝐒𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞?

◼️An issuer processor is a technical institution that connects the issuing banks with the card networks. It manages card issuance, authorises transactions, secures data, and assists in settling transactions. Different issuer processors offer various capabilities (cloud native, crypto payments, e-wallets etc)

◼️An acquirer processor also serves as a technical intermediary in payment transactions, however on the acceptance side. It links merchants, card schemes, and acquiring banks together and facilitates data transmission for the transaction authorisation and settlement processing through the issuer processor (albeit via the scheme).

#didyouknow

◼️It takes 0.9 seconds for a payment request to get authorised from the payment terminal to the payment processor and back!

◼️Whilst both acquirers and payment processors have relationships with card schemes, what can sometimes be overlooked is the card scheme compatibility, whereby the acquirer supports certain schemes but the processor does not.

◼️Payment processing entities can be grouped into many different categories besides the issuer/acquirer processor.

This includes: ‍ 🖇️Merchant account providers

‍🖇️Payment gateways

‍🖇️Mobile payment processors

‍🖇️Online payment processors

‍🖇️Point of sale (POS) systems"

Author

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