Cardholder

Cardholder: The owner of the card used to make a purchase; the consumer. Card-issuing bank: The

financial institution or other organization that issued the credit card to the cardholder. This bank

bills the consumer for repayment and bears the risk that the card is used fraudulently. American Express

and Discover were previously the only card-issuing banks for their respective brands, but as of 2007,

this is no longer the case. Merchant: The individual or business accepting credit card payments for

products or services sold to the cardholder
Acquiring bank: The financial institution accepting payment for the products or services on behalf of

the merchant.

Independent sales organization: Resellers (to merchants) of the services of the acquiring bank.
Merchant account provider: This could refer to the acquiring bank or the independent sales organization,

but in general is the organization that the merchant deals with. Credit Card association: An association

of card-issuing banks such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, etc. that set transaction

terms for merchants, card-issuing banks, and acquiring banks.
Transaction network: The system that implements the mechanics of the electronic transactions. May be

operated by an independent company, and one company may operate multiple networks. Transaction

processing networks include: Cardnet, Nabanco, Omaha, Paymentech, NDC Atlanta, Nova, Vital, Concord

EFSnet, and VisaNet
Affinity partner: Some institutions lend their name to an issuer to attract customers that have a strong

relationship with that institution, and get paid a fee or a percentage of the balance for each card

issued using their name. Examples of typical affinity partners are sports teams, universities and

charities.

The flow of information and money between these parties — always through the card associations — is

known as the interchange, and it consists of a few steps.