Acquirer
Also known as: Acquiring bank, Merchant acquirer
An acquirer is the licensed payment service provider that contracts with a merchant to accept and process card payments and transfer the funds to the merchant. It is the merchant's counterpart to the cardholder's issuer, and the party that stands behind the merchant's card payments.
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Example
A bakery signs a card-acceptance contract directly. The company named on that contract and on the monthly statement is the acquirer, whatever brand is printed on the terminal. Under a sub-merchant arrangement it would be the facilitator, with the acquirer behind it.
Most merchants can name their terminal supplier. Fewer can name their acquirer. They think it's the same company. Often it isn't.
European law defines the acquirer as a payment service provider "contracting with a payee to accept and process card-based payment transactions, which result in a transfer of funds to the payee". In plain terms: the acquirer is the other side of the card network from the cardholder's bank. It takes the payment message, passes it through the scheme to the issuer, and moves the money to the merchant. Card scheme rules require it to be licensed or registered with the scheme to do that.
On a direct contract, the company named on the contract and statement is the acquirer. Under a sub-merchant arrangement it is the facilitator, and the acquirer sits behind it. You find it on the contract, the statement and the payout line.
They treat the terminal, the app and the acquirer as one thing. They are not. A terminal is hardware. A payment service provider may be the software and the support. The acquirer carries the regulatory licence and, under scheme rules, the liability. Visa's rules say an acquirer that contracts with a payment facilitator "is liable for all acts, omissions, and other adverse conditions" caused by that facilitator and its sponsored merchants. That is why acquirers vet who they let in, and why the sub-merchant model has conditions attached.
Inside the European Union, the acquirer's fees to the merchant are regulated in one respect. Article 9 of the Interchange Fee Regulation requires acquirers to specify the merchant service charge, the interchange fee and the scheme fees for each card category and brand, unless the merchant asks otherwise in writing. Article 6 also prohibits territorial restrictions in scheme rules and licensing agreements for acquiring card payments within the Union.
The acquirer is who you are really buying from. Know the name.
