Four Parties to Every Tap - issuer, acquirer, network and interchange

The four-party model as Stripe sees it, with the message going merchant to acquirer to network to issuer and back. This lesson tells how it came to have four parties, and follows the fee on one card payment to each of them.

Before you start. From Your Balance Is the Bank's Debt - deposits, reserves and the run: your balance is a promise your bank owes you, so paying someone means getting your bank to move that promise to someone else’s bank. From Stripe - the case study: a card payment says “approved” in about a second, but the money itself moves a day or two later. This lesson is about who stands between the tap and the shop.