Glossary
Issuer
The bank or institution that provides a card to a cardholder and approves its transactions.
The issuer holds the cardholder's account. It decides whether to authorise each transaction, handles 3-D Secure authentication, and raises chargebacks on the cardholder's behalf.
Issuers often treat cross-border transactions more cautiously than domestic ones, which is one reason local acquiring can improve approval rates.