Glossary

Acquiring

Acquiring is the service of accepting cashless payments: a bank or payment company takes the buyer's payment and settles the funds to the merchant.

Acquiring is what lets a business accept cards, QR codes, wallets and other cashless payments. The party serving the merchant is the acquirer: it receives the payment from the scheme, checks it and credits the merchant's account minus its fee.

Online, this is called internet acquiring: the buyer enters details on a payment page and the merchant gets a success notification via API. Different countries prefer different methods — cards in some, instant transfers such as PIX or UPI in others — so one acquirer rarely covers every market.

What matters most to a merchant is the rate (MDR), settlement time, business requirements and approval rate.

Local payment methods for online businesses →

Related terms

PSP (payment service provider)A PSP (Payment Service Provider) connects a merchant to one or more payment methods through a single contra…MDR (merchant discount rate)MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) is the percentage of each payment that a merchant pays the acquirer or provide…SettlementSettlement is the transfer of funds for accepted payments to the merchant, minus fees, reserve and refunds.

Payments glossary →

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