Glossary
Processor
A processor is the technical operator that moves card transactions between the parties: it receives authorisation requests, formats them for the scheme, delivers the issuer's answer, builds the clearing files and settlement reports. An acquiring processor works for acquirers, an issuing processor for issuers; many acquirers outsource processing entirely and keep only the licence, the merchant contracts and the risk. A processor needs scheme certification and connections, not a payment licence.
Processor, acquirer, gateway
The acquirer is the licensed bank or institution with the merchant agreement and the liability. The processor is the system behind it that talks to Visa, Mastercard and the domestic schemes. The gateway is what the merchant integrates, and it reaches the processor through the acquirer’s interface. One company can be all three; in most markets they are different companies connected by contracts and interfaces.
Why a payment business cares
Two acquirers on the same processor share its outages and its decline logic; diversity of processors behind the acquirers in a route group is real redundancy. Response codes, 3-D Secure versions and token support depend on the processor as much as on the acquirer, which is why provider adapters differ for acquirers that look alike.
On the platform
Tranzify connects to acquirers and processors through their interfaces as providers in the catalogue; the platform has no scheme connection of its own: it orchestrates the client’s accounts at the acquirers and processors that do.
Updated: 2026-11-08