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Modulr glossary

Acquiring Bank

An acquiring bank (or Merchant Acquirer) is the financial institution within a card payment process that processes payments on behalf of merchants, enabling them to accept credit and debit card transactions and ultimately acquire the funds from the transaction. Acquirers facilitate payment authorisation, clearing, and settlement between businesses and card networks, connecting merchants to card networks like Visa and Mastercard. Acquirers facilitate transactions and may charge processing fees, but as a rule, interchange fees are set by schemes. With the rise of alternative payment solutions, acquiring bank services face increasing competition from Open Banking alternatives to card payments.

Applications

E-commerce:

Reduces fraud in online card payments by verifying the cardholder's identity

Banking and fintech:

Helps issuers and payment providers comply with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements.

Advantages

  • Enhanced security: Reduces unauthorised transactions by verifying that the genuine account holder is authorising the payment
  • Fraud prevention: Helps reduce chargebacks related to fraud.

Challenges

  • User Experience: Additional authentication steps can cause friction and increase checkout abandonment
  • Implementation complexity: Requires integration with card schemes and issuer systems.

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