Payment-Service-Provider (PSP)
A payment service provider (PSP) is a company that realizes the technical connection of an online store or local merchant to payment service providers. Contractual partners can be traditional banks, for example, but also acquiring banks (partners for billing) or issuing banks (card issuers).
Payment service providers are therefore companies that offer various payment solutions, primarily for e-commerce. In other words, providers that enable merchants to accept electronic payments.
Payment options via the payment service provider
Some of the most common payment options include PayPal, instant bank transfer or processing via the credit card providers Mastercard and Visacard. Companies that integrate a payment service provider into their own analogue commercial system minimize the effort involved in processing the various payment methods. This is also because they are now automatically processed by the respective service provider or credit card company, including the necessary “risk management” and “security requirements” services for the money transfer itself. The latter is increasingly being included in providers’ portfolios via e-wallet solutions or with mobile authorization.
With regard to data protection and the resulting costs, merchants should ensure that a PSP supports the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. With the right hardware, the merchant does not have to store credit card data separately and take responsibility for it. A payment service provider is independent of the retailer, whether online or local, and also works when both worlds merge(merchant integration). However, multichannel is also a possible model.
A PSP generally charges a service fee for order processing. This is usually calculated per transaction and as a percentage of the processed turnover.
Further information can be found at: NFC, RFID and multichannel overview.
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