An acquiring bank (or acquirer) is a bank licensed by the card networks - Visa, Mastercard - to accept card payments on behalf of a merchant. It receives the funds from the networks, holds them in the merchant account, settles them to the merchant on a schedule, and carries the financial risk of chargebacks. Every card payment ultimately lands with an acquirer; everything else sits on top of one.
When a customer pays by card, the transaction flows from the checkout to a payment gateway, through the card networks, to the acquiring bank. The acquirer credits the funds into a merchant account and settles them to the business, taking processing fees and holding the chargeback risk. The issuing bank (the customer's bank) sits on the other side. The acquirer is the regulated party that actually makes accepting cards possible.
These get used interchangeably but are different layers. The acquiring bank holds the license, the account and the risk. The payment processor is the technical plumbing that routes the transaction. A payment facilitator (PayFac) sits on top of an acquirer and onboards many merchants as sub-merchants under its own approval - which is how you go live in minutes rather than underwriting a bank relationship yourself.
The acquirer decides who can charge cards, how fast money settles, and who eats a dispute. Riding on an established acquirer through a facilitator is exactly what lets a new app or an individual go live the same day. paas.build runs on UniPaaS (an FCA-authorised payment institution, No. 929994), settling on J.P. Morgan acquiring rails - so you get bank-grade acquiring, no company needed, without opening a bank relationship yourself. UK, EU and US.
The acquiring bank holds the license, the merchant account and the risk; the payment processor is the technical layer that routes the transaction between the merchant, the card networks and the acquirer. Many providers bundle both, but only a bank can be the acquirer.
Usually not. Most businesses reach an acquirer through a payment facilitator, processor or PSP that has already been approved by the bank. That is how you go live in minutes instead of underwriting a bank relationship yourself. paas.build gives you a sub-merchant account on UniPaaS, which settles on J.P. Morgan acquiring rails.
paas.build runs on UniPaaS, an FCA-authorised payment institution (No. 929994), with settlement on J.P. Morgan - one of the largest acquiring banks in the world. You get bank-grade acquiring without opening a bank relationship yourself.
The acquirer decides who can accept cards, how fast funds settle, and who carries chargeback risk. Riding on an established acquirer lets a new app or individual go live the same day, capped until verified, instead of waiting weeks for bank underwriting.