When You Swipe $100 , Who Does It Pass Through? A Guide to Issuers, Acquirers, Card Networks, and Merchants
Starting from a $100 card payment at a convenience store, this article breaks down the roles of the cardholder, merchant, issuer, acquirer, and card network, clarifies the differences among authorization, clearing, settlement, and merchant funding, and compares the network models and scale metrics of the six major global card schemes.