Financial intermediary between a customer and merchant include:
Card Associations – Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.
Card Issuing Banks – are the financial institutions affiliated with the card association brands and provides credit or debit cards directly to customers.
Card Processors – also known as Acquirer or Acquiring Banks. They pass batch information and authorization requests so that merchant can complete transactions in their businesses. These institutions are the link between payment account providers and card associations.
Payment Account Providers – are companies like NTC that manage credit card processing, usually through the help of a Card processor also known as Acquiring Banks.
Payment Gateways: These are special portals that route transactions to a card processor or acquirer.