Keyware

Players of the payment chain

Merchants: supply the goods and services in exchange of a payment, which can be cash or electronic, the latter requiring a payment terminal (or a gateway in the case of e-commerce). A merchant maximises its chances of concluding a transaction by accepting as many payment schemes as possible.

Payment acceptance processing providers: provide the merchants with the interface (POS terminals, online gateways) required to connect the card to the network and drive the transaction.

Acquirers: financial institutions which host the merchant accounts and give access to the desired card schemes (Visa, Mastercard…). They will also receive the funds (on which they will take a fee in exchange for the service provided) from the customers’ banks once the transaction is completed.

Acceptance-related service providers: provide additional services to the merchants, such as coupons, loyalty, additional functionalities to the terminal, electronic meal vouchers…

Acquiring & issuing processors: provide payment transaction services to the acquirers and issuers through front-end (delivering payment clearances/refusals) and back-end (delivering gathered transaction approvals for settlement) processing.

Card schemes: players such as Visa, Mastercard… which operate their own networks with specific transaction rules.

Clearing and settlement institutes: correspond generally to national financial institutions, provide clearing and settlement of transactions between acquirers and issuers.

Issuers: provide the payment cards (which can use different schemes) used by the customers.