What is the difference between a merchant acquirer and a payment processor?

Merchant acquirers and payment processors perform complementary but distinct functions in card payments: acquirers are card-scheme-licensed financial institutions that onboard merchants, maintain merchant accounts, settle funds, and assume much of the risk related to fraud, disputes, and chargebacks, while processors securely transmit transaction information for authorization among merchants, acquirers, card networks, and issuing banks. Both use measures such as encryption, tokenisation, PCI DSS compliance, and fraud monitoring, though acquirers focus more on merchant-level risk assessment and regulatory obligations including AML and KYC, whereas processors concentrate on technical transaction handling and error management. Although smaller merchants commonly access processors through acquirers, some larger businesses may work directly with processors. Airwallex presents itself as a provider of both services internationally, offering multicurrency payment collection and settlements, global payouts, and an example of helping retailer Orbitkey expand in Europe, accelerate payments, and reduce international transfer costs.

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