Acquire & Issuer

What are Acquiring Banks?

An acquiring bank is a bank or financial institution that processes credit or debit card payments on behalf of a merchant. An acquiring bank serves a merchant by “acquiring” funds from cardholder banks when payment card transactions are processed.

What are Issuing Banks?

Issuing banks on the other hand is bank who issued the card. They issue payment cards to authorized consumers.

In above image Bank B provided  Account and POS machine to the merchant which accepting payment from Cardholder hence bank B is Acquire Bank

Bank A  Providing money to the Merchant on behalf of Cardholder Hence  Bank A is Issuer Bank

• Merchant is a customer of Acquirer bank
• Customer who uses card is a customer of Issuer bank