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Merchant Acquiring Services.

Easily accept and process all major debit and credit card payments from customers all over the world.

A card payment transaction is typically comprised of two exchanges: the first between the cardholder and the bank that issued their card; and the second between the merchant and the acquiring bank. This page details the process between the merchant and the acquiring bank.

What is a merchant acquirer?

Accepting a card payment may seem like a swift and simple process – a quick tap or swipe and that’s that. But there is a more complex payment process that happens behind the scenes at the point of sale, and this is where merchant acquirers come in.

A merchant acquirer is (usually) a bank that helps merchants with card-related matters, including:

Providing an interface for all card-related matters, such as:

  • Card authorisations
  • Customer authentications
  • Recovering money from card-issuing banks

Paying issuer fees on behalf of a merchant

  • Acting as an intermediary in cases of card claims, refunds or returns

A merchant acquiring bank is responsible for receiving the card transaction details and passing them on to the card issuer so that the transaction can be authorised and completed.

What is a merchant acquirer?

Accepting a card payment may seem like a swift and simple process – a quick tap or swipe and that’s that. But there is a more complex payment process that happens behind the scenes at the point of sale, and this is where merchant acquirers come in.

A merchant acquirer is (usually) a bank that helps merchants with card-related matters, including:

Providing an interface for all card-related matters, such as:

  • Card authorisations
  • Customer authentications
  • Recovering money from card-issuing banks

Paying issuer fees on behalf of a merchant

  • Acting as an intermediary in cases of card claims, refunds or returns

A merchant acquiring bank is responsible for receiving the card transaction details and passing them on to the card issuer so that the transaction can be authorised and completed.

Payment processors and facilitators.

payment processing icon

What is a payment processor?

A payment processor acts as a kind of mediator between the merchant and the merchant card acquirer, communicating the information from your customer’s card to yours and your customer’s banks. If the funds are available, the transaction is approved and put through.

payment facilitator icon

What is a payment facilitator?

A payment facilitator gives merchants the ability to accept card payments via a payment gateway. Each payment facilitator is aligned with an acquirer, who acts as a sponsor bank to the card networks and card schemes (Visa, Mastercard and Amex).

Why choose Valitor?

As a pan-European acquirer, we have an extensive history of working with some of the leading global payment processing facilitators. We make it our business to work closely with payment facilitators in order to clearly understand and align with their needs. Our specialist expertise allows us to support certain payment facilitator issues, such as:

  • New regulations
  • Increasing acceptance rates
  • Fraud prevention
  • Chargebacks
Contact us today

Why choose Valitor?

As a pan-European acquirer, we have an extensive history of working with some of the leading global payment processing facilitators. We make it our business to work closely with payment facilitators in order to clearly understand and align with their needs. Our specialist expertise allows us to support certain payment facilitator issues, such as:

  • New regulations
  • Increasing acceptance rates
  • Fraud prevention
  • Chargebacks
Contact us today

Find out more about the card payment process.

Read our blog article to discover more about how card payment processing works, including the step-by-step transaction process detailing the 5 main stakeholders involved in card payments: the cardholder, the merchant/retailer, the merchant acquirer, the card scheme, and the issuer.


Read blog article

Get in touch today.

If you have a question regarding a Merchant Acquiring Services, please complete the form below and a member of the Partnership Team will be in contact.