The acquiring bank role, and how BazPay fulfils it.
An acquiring bank is the licensed entity that holds membership with the card schemes, receives authorisation responses from issuers and settles the merchant. BazPay is a direct regional acquirer that fulfils that role for its merchant book — named MID, interchange++ reporting, local settlement account settlement, one contract.
Operated by NEWERA PAYMENT TECHNOLOGIES LTD. Built for EU, UK and Commonwealth e-commerce sellers, subscription software firms and professional-services businesses. No reseller layer, no aggregated MID, no third party in the reporting chain.
Why the choice of card acquiring bank matters
Three properties depend on your acquirer: how your traffic is identified to the schemes, how your reporting resolves, and where your settlement lands. Four benefits below cover the merchant-facing consequences.
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Direct scheme membership on the acquiring side
BazPay holds the acquiring relationship with the card networks for its regional book. Your traffic authorises against our contract with the schemes — no reseller sitting between your merchant identifier and the network.
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Named MID per merchant
Every merchant gets its own merchant identifier at each supported scheme. Chargeback ratios, decline data and scheme-fee reporting are attributed to your entity, not diluted across an aggregator's pool.
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EUR settlement into your own local settlement account
Funds reconcile per scheme cycle and land in the local settlement account registered to your business — the acquiring settlement is not aggregated, delayed or renamed on the way.
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Transparent interchange++ economics
Every settled transaction breaks out interchange, scheme fees and the acquirer margin. Finance teams reconcile against the raw components a card acquiring bank should be able to show.
Acquiring bank and issuing bank in the four-party card model
A card payment involves four parties: the cardholder, the issuing bank, the card scheme network and the acquiring bank (with the merchant on the acquiring side). Each has a defined role in the authorisation, settlement and dispute flows.
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Issuing bank
The issuer side of the card
The issuing bank issues the cardholder's card, authorises the transaction on their side and bears the credit risk on the card balance. Cardholder chargeback rights sit with the issuer. BazPay does not issue cards — the issuing bank is your shopper's own bank, not us.
- Issues the card
- Authorises on the issuer side
- Handles cardholder disputes
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Card scheme
The scheme network
Visa, Mastercard, Cartes Bancaires and eftpos operate the network that routes authorisation and settlement messages between the acquiring bank and the issuing bank. Scheme rules define chargeback reason codes, 3-D Secure handling and interchange.
- Routes messages
- Sets scheme rules
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Acquiring bank
The acquirer side of the merchant
The acquiring bank holds membership with the schemes on behalf of merchants, receives authorisation responses from the issuer, and settles funds to the merchant per scheme cycle. BazPay serves this role directly for its regional book.
- Holds scheme membership
- Settles the merchant
- Attributes chargebacks to the MID
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Merchant
The seller (your business)
The merchant contracts with the acquiring bank, integrates against the gateway, and holds the named MID that identifies its traffic to the schemes. On BazPay the merchant contract and the acquiring relationship are one.
- Holds the MID
- Contracts with the acquirer
Merchant-side detail on merchant acquiring. The processor role on payment processors; the platform view on payment network gateway.
How BazPay fulfils the acquiring bank role on your book
Six stages describe how a merchant sits on the acquiring side of BazPay — from boarding to steady-state settlement and dispute handling. Each stage change fires a signed webhook so your finance and ops stacks stay in sync.
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Board
KYC and merchant underwriting. Documents, ownership and business model are reviewed against the acquiring policy for your vertical.
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Provision
A named MID is opened with each supported scheme for your legal entity. Sandbox and live API credentials are issued for the gateway.
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Authorise
Every charge posts against your MID with the correct MCC, region and 3-D Secure result bound to the transaction for the issuer's own scoring.
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Clear
The scheme routes the cleared transaction back into the acquiring settlement stream on the correct scheme cycle.
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Settle
Funds land in your local settlement account with interchange, scheme fees and the acquirer margin broken out per settled line.
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Disputes
Chargebacks and pre-dispute alerts fire signed webhooks against your named MID; evidence packets pre-assemble with the authentication result and delivery data.
Direct acquirer vs a reseller layered on top of one
A reseller PSP layered above a bank acquirer takes a percentage of the transaction and adds an integration hop; a direct acquirer removes that layer. The comparison below shows where the trade-off lands after a book grows past a certain size.
| Dimension | BazPay (direct acquirer) | Reseller layered on an acquirer |
|---|---|---|
| Contract holder | Direct with BazPay as acquirer | Reseller PSP on an aggregated MID |
| MID structure | Named MID per merchant, per scheme | Shared MID across the pool |
| Chargeback attribution | Attributed to your MID | Diluted across the pool |
| Settlement | Per-scheme cycle to your local settlement account | Aggregated payouts, common delay |
| Reporting | Interchange++ line detail | Blended-rate summary |
| Scheme fee visibility | Line-item scheme fees per transaction | Bundled into the headline rate |
| Underwriting scope | Merchants across the EU, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, direct review | Broad, few exclusions |
Statement structure on the pricing page. Broader acquiring context on merchant acquiring; the engineering foundation on payment infrastructure.
Features engineered into the acquiring side
Every capability below ships on the standard integration. Named MID, interchange++ reporting and scheme registrations are not premium tier — they are default properties of the direct acquiring relationship.
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Named MID with each scheme
Your own merchant identifier at each supported card scheme — chargeback attribution and settlement reporting live under your entity.
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Interchange++ reporting
Every settled transaction breaks out interchange, scheme fees and acquirer margin. Finance-team reconciliation against the raw components.
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3-D Secure 2.2 with exemptions
Authentication on every card charge with automatic exemption logic; liability shift where the scheme permits.
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Signed webhooks
HMAC-signed, replay-protected events for approvals, declines, refunds, disputes and payouts — one signature scheme end to end.
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Idempotent requests
Retry-safe writes across create, capture, refund and payout. A network blip never becomes a double charge on the acquiring side.
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Scheme registrations
Visa VIRP and Mastercard SPoC/PCI-CP where required — the compliance obligations an acquirer carries on your behalf.
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SEPA and SEPA Instant payouts
Merchant payouts settle from the acquiring balance to your local settlement account, with SEPA Instant where the corridor is supported.
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Real-time decline data
Every authorisation response returns the raw scheme code, issuer response and normalised reason — visible in analytics within seconds.
The acquirer view on the API — from charge to settlement
A charge posts against your named MID. The response returns the acquiring context — authorisation code, network, exemption and settlement schedule. Signed webhooks confirm every state change; settlement events roll up per scheme cycle into your regional settlement account with interchange++ line detail attached.
POST /v1/charges
Idempotency-Key: 8f1c-2b3a-9e4d
{
"amount": 4990,
"currency": "EUR",
"payment_method": "card",
"capture": "auto",
"three_d_secure": "required_if_needed",
"descriptor": "ACME EU LTD",
"metadata": { "order_id": "ORD-10842" }
}The response includes the acquiring MID and the network the charge landed on. Full schema in the API reference; handler samples in the developer docs.
Who BazPay boards on the acquiring side
The four merchant profiles below fit BazPay's regional underwriting. Each gets the same named MID model, the same interchange++ reporting and the same signed webhook envelope.
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Multi-country e-commerce
DTC brands running regional storefronts on one named MID. Local card acceptance without stitching regional PSPs — chargeback ratios and scheme fees stay clean per entity.
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Subscription software
SaaS teams with card-on-file books that need clean interchange visibility across renewals; MIT exemptions on rebills claimed against the acquiring rules.
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Professional services
B2B invoicing with higher tickets, named-payer trust lists and enforced 3-D Secure 2 above a ceiling you set on the acquiring side.
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Digital publishers
Membership renewals, single-issue purchases and paywall unlocks reconciled per SKU on one MID, with dispute defence tuned to intangible-goods reason codes.
Out of scope for BazPay: adult, gambling, CBD, nutraceutical, forex, CFD, crypto-exchange, debt-collection and MLM. BazPay is not a merchant of record and not a marketplace of third-party PSPs.
Security, compliance and scheme obligations
An acquirer carries scheme obligations on the merchant's behalf — Visa VIRP, Mastercard SPoC/PCI-CP registrations where required, adherence to PCI DSS Level 1 on the acquiring and gateway environment, and authentication on every card charge. BazPay operates each of these as default properties of the acquiring role, not as premium add-ons.
- PCI DSS Level 1
- Annual assessment on the acquiring and gateway environment
- Merchant SAQ A
- Hosted fields and gateway vault keep card data out of your stack
- Authentication
- 3-D Secure 2.2 with automatic exemption logic on every card charge
- GDPR
- In-region data residency; DPA on request
- Scheme registrations
- Visa VIRP and Mastercard SPoC/PCI-CP where required
Questions merchants ask about the acquiring bank role
What is an acquiring bank, and what does it do?
An acquiring bank is the licensed entity that holds membership with the card schemes on behalf of merchants. It receives authorisation responses from issuers, settles funds into the merchant's bank account per scheme cycle, and attributes chargebacks to the merchant's named MID. In payments terminology, the acquiring role can be held by a chartered bank or by a licensed payment institution — the function is the same. BazPay operates as a direct regional acquirer for the merchants it boards.
What is the difference between an acquiring bank and an issuing bank?
The acquiring bank sits on the merchant side of the card scheme and settles the seller. The issuing bank sits on the cardholder side, issues the card and authorises the transaction on the shopper's behalf. On a card payment the schemes route messages between the two. Cardholder chargeback rights belong to the issuing bank; chargeback attribution and evidence handling belong to the acquiring bank.
Is BazPay itself a bank in the traditional sense?
BazPay is a direct regional acquirer operated by NEWERA PAYMENT TECHNOLOGIES LTD. It fulfils the acquiring-bank role in the four-party card scheme model — direct scheme membership, named MID per merchant, regional settlement — regardless of the legal form of the acquiring entity. In this industry the acquiring role is held either by a chartered bank or by a licensed payment institution; both perform the same acceptance and settlement functions.
Why does the choice of acquiring bank matter to a merchant?
Three things depend on the acquirer: the MID structure your traffic sits under (named vs shared), the reporting granularity you receive (interchange++ line detail vs blended summary) and the settlement path (direct local settlement account vs aggregated payout). A direct regional acquirer removes the reseller layer that would otherwise sit between your traffic and the scheme network.
How does the acquiring bank interact with the issuing bank on a chargeback?
When a cardholder disputes a charge, the issuing bank submits a chargeback under a scheme reason code. The acquiring bank passes the case to the merchant, collects evidence (3-D Secure 2 result, delivery data, refund proof) and represents the case back through the scheme network. BazPay pre-assembles the evidence packet from data already on the charge — you review, add merchant-specific detail and submit.
Does the acquiring bank determine my card processing fees?
The acquiring bank sets the acquirer margin; interchange is set by the schemes based on the card type and geography of each transaction; scheme fees are set by the schemes themselves. On BazPay's interchange++ statement, each of the three components is broken out per settled charge, so you see exactly what the acquirer margin is versus what the scheme charges on top.
Which merchant types can BazPay board as an acquiring partner?
Merchants across the EU, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand: e-commerce sellers, subscription software firms, professional-services businesses and digital publishers. BazPay does not board adult, gambling, CBD, nutraceutical, forex, CFD, crypto-exchange, debt-collection or MLM merchants, and does not act as a merchant of record or a marketplace of third-party PSPs.
How does BazPay compare with a bank acquiring relationship layered under a PSP?
A PSP layered above a bank acquirer adds an integration hop and often re-brands the reporting. BazPay collapses that layer: the acquirer, the gateway and the merchant-support surface are the same entity, so there is no third party in the reporting chain or the settlement path. The trade-off is scope — direct acquirers underwrite tighter merchant profiles than aggregators.
Start the acquiring conversation
Share your business model, monthly volumes and existing acquiring stack. A named engineer will confirm boarding fit and map the migration inside one working day. See also merchant acquiring, pricing and the deeper payment processors comparison.