GLOBAL PAYMENTS KNOWLEDGEISO 20022 / SWIFT / SEPA / MT / MX
PAYMENTSSIGNAL

The interactive academy for the standards, messages, and rails that move money.

PROGRESS
DRILL · THE FOUR-PARTY MODEL

The words behind The four-party model

Read the plain-language definition, then name the term it describes.

The structure behind most card payments: cardholder, merchant, issuer, and acquirer, with a card network in the middle connecting the two banks.

Step 1 of 6

THE DRILL AS TEXT

  1. The structure behind most card payments: cardholder, merchant, issuer, and acquirer, with a card network in the middle connecting the two banks.
    • Four-party model
  2. A card scheme where one company is issuer, acquirer, and network at once — it holds both the cardholder and the merchant relationship itself.
    • Three-party model
  3. The bank or licensed institution on the merchant's side of a card payment: it signs up merchants, forwards their authorisations, and pays out their card takings.
    • Acquirer
  4. The bank that gives the cardholder their card, approves or declines each authorisation, and settles what its cardholders spend through the network.
    • Issuer
  5. The scheme in the middle of the four-party model: it sets the rules, routes authorisations between acquirers and issuers, and runs clearing and settlement.
    • Card network
  6. The private rulebook every issuer and acquirer accepts on joining a card network — covering acceptance, authorisation, clearing, disputes, and penalties.
    • Card scheme rules

This drill is built from The four-party model — it rearranges material written and sourced on that page rather than asserting anything new, so every claim in it is checkable there.