Credit Card Transaction Processing and Security

1. Cardholder. Cardholder is an authorized user of a credit or debit card.
2. Card issuer. Card issuers are financial institutions that are members of Visa and MasterCard, which issue payment cards on behalf of the two Credit Card Associations and contract with their cardholders for the terms of the repayment of transactions.
3. Acquiring bank. Acquiring banks (also called acquirers, processing banks or merchant banks) are financial institutions, members of Visa and MasterCard, that contract with merchants to enable them to accept debit and credit card payments for their products and services. They can also, and that is the case most of the time, contract with third parties to provide some of these services.
4. Payment processor. Payment processor is an organization that has contracted with an acquiring bank to provide merchants with card payment processing services on behalf of the acquirer. Payment processors must be registered with Visa and MasterCard and must identify on all of their marketing materials, including their websites, the name of their bank partner.
5. Merchant. Merchant is a business or a non-profit organization that has contracted with an acquiring bank or a merchant processor to accept card payments.
6. Credit Card Associations. The Credit Card Associations of Visa and MasterCard are member-owned associations of banks that govern the issuing of Visa and MasterCard cards and the acquiring of Visa and MasterCard card transactions. Both organizations have developed payment systems to facilitate the processing of transactions between member banks.
7. Service provider. A service provider can be any third party that provides a service used in the card payment transaction process: point-of-sale (POS) terminals, payment gateways, web hosting, SSL certificates, shopping carts, etc.