Transaction Center & VPOS Support
What is a Merchant Account
Merchant Account
A merchant account is a contract under which an acquiring bank extends a line of credit to a merchant who wishes to accept payment card transactions of a particular card association brand. Without such a contract, one cannot accept payments by any of the major credit card brands.
Acquiring Bank
An acquiring bank (or acquirer) is the bank or financial institution that accepts payments for the products or services on behalf of a merchant.
Merchant
Merchants function as professionals who deal with trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to produce profit.
External Links
- NACHA is the electronic payments association for financial institutions.
- Electronic Transaction Association (ETA) is the international trade association for the payment processing industry.
- The GreenSheet is a trade newsletter for the merchant account sales industry, serving Banks, ISOs and MLSs.