A merchant expanding internationally will be pitched by three different kinds of company using nearly identical language. Separating them is the fastest way to understand what you are actually paying for.
Acquirer
The regulated institution that holds the merchant agreement, carries the settlement risk and connects directly to the card schemes or local clearing system. Rates, reserves and account survival ultimately sit here, whoever fronts the relationship.
PSP / gateway
The technical layer that presents checkout, tokenises credentials, and passes transactions to one or more acquirers. A PSP can add enormous value in conversion and reporting, but it does not, by itself, decide whether your account stays open.
Orchestration
A routing layer above multiple PSPs and acquirers, deciding per transaction which path to attempt, handling retries and failover, and normalising reporting. For merchants above roughly a few million in annual volume across several markets, orchestration is usually where the next percentage point of approval rate comes from.
What to ask in the first call
Who is the contracting entity? Is my MID dedicated? Which acquirers sit behind this integration in each market? What is the reserve and settlement cycle? Can I add a second provider without changing my integration? The answers place any vendor into one of the three roles immediately.
Talk to our payment team about your markets.
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