Merchant Atlas
Payment Glossary
A plain-English reference for common merchant payment terminology.
Acquirer
A financial institution or acquiring organisation involved in accepting card transactions for merchants.
Gateway
Technology that securely passes payment information between checkout and processing systems.
Interchange
A component of card economics associated with transactions between issuing and acquiring sides.
Authorisation
The process of checking whether a payment can be approved.
Capture
The instruction to complete a previously authorised payment.
Settlement
The movement of processed funds to the merchant or relevant account.
Chargeback
A card transaction dispute raised through the card-payment process.
3-D Secure
An authentication framework used for certain online card transactions.