Acquiring– a modern, worldwide service that allows your customers to pay for goods or services using payment cards. There are more than 18 million trade and service enterprises in the world that use acquiring services.

If you are the owner of a store or chain of stores, a travel company, restaurant, supermarket or other trade and service organization and you still do not accept payments from your customers using bank cards, then this information will be of interest to you.

The number of bank card holders is growing in our country and around the world. Employees of organizations who receive wages on a card, foreign guests, as well as simply people who appreciate the convenience of non-cash payments, and therefore are accustomed to using a bank card when paying - all these are potential clients who, with acquiring from Belgazprombank, will become your real clients .

Trade acquiring at OJSC Belgazprombank is:

• the ability to accept for payment cards of the most dynamically developing payment system - Union Pay, as well as cards of the MasterCard, Visa and BELKART payment systems;
• connection of the service within a period not exceeding 7 working days;
• operational control over transactions performed using the terminal using a daily transaction report, which is sent to the organization’s email address;
• transfer Money under an acquiring agreement to an account opened in any bank of the Republic of Belarus;
• information and marketing support (stickers with payment system logos and training materials for staff).

Stages of connecting to the merchant acquiring service

1. Purchase a terminal from a bank partner:

2. Provide to any bank branch a completed Application for installation of a payment terminal and a package of documents (if the organization does not have a current account opened with Belgazprombank OJSC)

3. Conclude an acquiring agreement with the bank and receive information stickers with payment system logos

4. Get a configured terminal from a bank partner and undergo training

Tariff plans for merchant and mobile acquiring:

Tariff plan	Acquiring services	Reward amount
"Standard"	Acquiring payments made using cards of all categories issued by OJSC "Belgazprombank"	1.7% of the amount
	Acquiring payments made using cards of all categories issued by other resident banks of the Republic of Belarus, with the exception of cards of the following categories: MasterCard Gold, MasterCard Business, MasterCard World, MasterCard Platinum, MasterCard World Black Edition, MasterCard World Elite/Signia, Visa Gold, Visa Platinum, Visa Business, Visa Rewards, Visa Infinite	1.7% of the amount
	Acquiring payments made using cards issued by other resident banks of the Republic of Belarus of the following categories: MasterCard Gold, MasterCard Business, MasterCard World, MasterCard Platinum, MasterCard World Black Edition, MasterCard World Elite/Signia, Visa Gold, Visa Platinum, Visa Business, Visa Rewards, Visa Infinite	2.2% of the amount
	Acquiring payments made using cards issued by non-resident banks of the Republic of Belarus	2.7% of the amount

Merchant acquiring is a method of paying with a bank card in stores and other similar places.

Almost everything that is written in relation to the term “acquiring” will be true for trade acquiring, with the exception of some nuances that are relevant only for mobile and virtual acquiring options.

How to connect trade acquiring in Belarusian banks?

It will not be difficult for sellers of goods, services and anyone wishing to accept card payments to enter into an agreement with a bank, purchase or rent necessary equipment. In the case of standard trade acquiring, this will be a POS terminal. The setup of the system is undertaken by specialists from the terminal supplier; some questions can be clarified directly with the bank. The trade organization's only concern is usually the choice of the acquiring bank and the type of device.

In practice, it is most convenient to immediately contact the branch of your bank at the place of service, and then follow the instructions of its employees. But knowledge of the tariffs and conditions of other banks will also not be superfluous.

There are several general trends when the acquiring bank sets commissions for merchant organizations:

• The minimum commission is usually charged for payments using the bank’s own cards, especially if the money is credited to the seller’s account in the same bank.
• Transactions with other cards and accounts will cost more.
• The highest commission is usually for payments by cards of foreign banks.
• The size of the commission may depend on the type of card (premium, basic level) and the seller's field of activity.

The general card standards for trade acquiring in Belarus remain:

• Visa;

But there are some exceptions and additions.

Conditions and tariffs for trade acquiring in Belarusian banks

The main conditions for acquiring Belarusian banks can be presented in the following table:

Bank's name	For acquiring bank cards when making a payment to an account at the acquiring bank	For acquiring bank cards when paying to an account in another bank	For cards from banks of the Republic of Belarus when paying to an account at the acquiring bank	For cards from banks of the Republic of Belarus when paying to an account in another bank	For cards of foreign banks	Special conditions and commissions	The need to open an account with the acquiring bank
							depends on the contract
							depends on the contract
						Union Pay cards are also accepted; 2% commission is assigned for premium cards of banks of the Republic of Belarus
							depends on the contract
							depends on the contract
						Only Belcard cards are accepted; commission 1.4% applies to cards of OJSC Belagroprombank
							depends on the contract
						American Express cards are also accepted

Before concluding an acquiring agreement, as well as during the process of using the service, the conditions and tariffs should be clarified directly with the bank, because they may change or be specified for individual service options.

And the last, perhaps unpleasant, question should be the price of the acquiring terminal. For stationary options, it usually ranges from 800 to 1,100 rubles. But you can purchase a used terminal. You can buy it in installments or rent it. The main thing here will be to agree on the equipment model with the bank, because everyone has it credit institution I have my own requirements in this regard.

If you notice an error in the text, please highlight it and press Ctrl+Enter

As throughout the world, in our country there is an increase in payments using bank plastic cards. Today you can use the card to pay in shops, cafes, gas stations, and hotels. And also receive cash at any time of the day in a convenient place, pay for utilities, electricity, mobile and landline telephone communications, cable television services and Internet providers and much more. Acceptance of plastic cards as a means of payment is carried out through such banking services as acquiring.

What is acquiring?

Acquiring is the activity of a bank, which includes settlements with trade (service) enterprises for transactions carried out using cards, as well as the issuance of cash to cardholders who are not clients of the bank.

Acquiring is carried out by the acquiring bank on the basis of agreements concluded with organizations that accept cards. It includes: activities related to processing transactions performed using cards issued by other banks; cash services for holders of these cards; settlement services for trade or service enterprises.

To carry out acquiring activities, the bank must either have its own processing center (for example, Priorbank OJSC and Belvnesheconombank OJSC have such centers), or enter into an agreement with a separate processing company.

Processing is the activity of collecting and processing information coming from trade (service) organizations, ATMs, self-service payment and information terminals, cash issuing points when carrying out transactions with cards, as well as transferring processed information for non-cash payments.

In the Republic of Belarus, acquiring is possible only for transactions performed using cards of the national BelCard system and the international systems VISA International and MasterCard WorldWide.

How it works?

The relationship between a trade and service enterprise and its client can be described as follows:
1) When paying for a product or service, the client decides to pay with a plastic card.

2) The cashier, having received the card from the client, before performing the payment transaction, carries out an external inspection of the card to verify the authenticity and ownership of it by the client.

4) After successful completion of the operation, two copies of the check card are printed, one of which is returned to the client along with the card.

5) After completing customer service, the cashier ends the operating day. To do this, using an electronic terminal, the cashier creates registers of check cards, which are electronically transmitted to the acquiring bank.

The process of receiving money from a buyer to a trade (service) enterprise is shown in the figure.

Acquiring scheme

The following participants are involved in paying for goods and services using bank cards: a processing center, a payment system, the card issuing bank (the company's client bank) and the bank with which the organization has an agreement - the acquiring bank.

When making payments using a plastic card, the following happens:
1) When reading information from a card, via a secure communication channel, the request is sent to the processing center, which communicates with the payment system.

3) The issuing bank checks the validity of the card and the sufficiency of funds in the client’s account and generates a response, which is delivered via the return route to the terminal installed in the organization.

5) After this, the issuing bank, based on the received documents, transfers funds from the client’s card account in favor of the recipient (acquiring bank, trade organization, etc.). Funds are credited to the company's account no later than one to three business days.

Equipment required to connect acquiring services.

There are three main types of such equipment:
1. mechanical devices used for issuing special payment receipts - slips on plastic cards (so-called imprinters). To obtain an imprint on a slip, imprinters use two rollers: the first transfers information from the card to the slip, and the second transfers information from the plate of the enterprise (cliché) serving the card. After receiving the impression, the cashier enters the necessary data about the transaction into the slip, after which it is signed by the client. One copy of the check remains at the point of sale, the second - with the client, the third copy is transferred to the bank. In our country they are practically not used.

Installing imprinters at trade and service enterprises was popular several years ago, but nowadays such solutions are used more often as a backup method of paying by bank card in the event of electronic equipment failure.

2. electronic terminals for accepting bank cards, various models and methods of connecting to the processing center of the servicing bank (POS terminals);

3. special software for cash registers, working in conjunction with special plug-in keyboards (so-called cash register solutions).
The most common option now is to install one or more POS terminals in a trade and service enterprise. The modern range of such terminals allows you to connect a trading enterprise to a bank in the most different ways. This could be a regular telephone line, a dedicated communication channel, or a connection through a mobile operator. Last option may be convenient for those organizations that provide courier delivery of goods. In this case, it is possible to equip couriers with mobile terminals powered by batteries and provide the opportunity to accept a bank card for payment directly at the point of delivery.

There are also solutions using communication between a mobile terminal and its base unit via Bluetooth. Such solutions are convenient for restaurants, as they allow the waiter to carry out card transactions directly at the client’s table.

For large organizations with several cash registers (for example, supermarkets), banks offer installation of cash register solutions. In this case, the cash register software is modified to accept payments by cards; special modules are connected to cash registers for entering a PIN code and reading chip cards.

Internet acquiring

Internet acquiring allows you to pay for purchases on the Internet, having only a current account in a bank and a Visa or MasterCard plastic card. In this case, two conditions must be met. First, it is required that the issuing bank allows payments via the Internet from this type of card. Secondly, suppliers of goods and services must be ready to accept such payments by providing the user with a payment interface.

To make a payment, the card holder just needs to indicate in a special form on the company’s website the card number, its expiration date and the CV2 code (the CV2 code is printed on the back of the card in the form of three digits). After which the amount required for payment will be debited from the client’s card. The entire procedure takes about 1 minute and is easy to complete.

Internet acquiring appeared in Belarus at the beginning of 2009 - after the launch of the WEBPAY electronic payment system, of which Priorbank OJSC is a partner in our country. Through the WEBPAY system you can pay for telephone communications, Internet, utilities, food, household goods, books, CDs, keys to online games and much more.

Currently, in addition to Priorbank OJSC, two more operators have joined Internet acquiring. True, for now it’s more modest: serving only one online service. This is OJSC "BPS-Bank" - the sale of air tickets to the company "Belavia", and OJSC " ASB Belarusbank» – making payments for goods from the oz.by online store.

Tariffs for acquiring services.

As a reward for acquiring services, the bank charges the organization a commission (a certain percentage of the transaction amount).

Tariffs for servicing bank cards range from 1.2% to 3.0% on average. This percentage may change up or down, depending on the type of business, enterprise turnover, installed equipment, communication methods, etc.

For example, in a regular supermarket the acquiring commission is 1.2%, and in hotels, gaming establishments, jewelry stores, etc. -until 3 %.
There is also a situation where in trade and service enterprises to which the bank provides collection services, the acquiring fee is set in an amount equal to the collection fee.

Bank card holders should also not forget about additional commissions. So, for example, when withdrawing money from a card at ATMs or cash points of a “foreign” bank that does not have a corresponding agreement with your bank on cash withdrawal without commission, the issuing bank will write off from your card account 2 to 4% of the amount of the transaction .

In addition, you may still have to pay for the services of the bank whose cash desk you contacted. The size of this commission will be about 2% for Belarusian rubles and 2.5-3% for foreign currency.

Advantages and disadvantages of acquiring

To summarize, we cannot help but dwell on the advantages of acquiring and payments with plastic cards in general.

For buyers:
1. This eliminates the need to carry large amounts of cash with you, without denying yourself the opportunity to make spontaneous purchases.
2. Security - a lost wallet is unlikely to be returned, but a blocked card in time makes it possible not to lose your money if it is stolen.
3. Participation in additional advertising campaigns, promotions and prize draws.
4. The ability to pay for goods and services on the Internet using a plastic card.
5. Payment for utilities, communication services, the Internet, etc. 24 hours a day on any day of the week, including holidays and weekends.

For a trade and service enterprise:
1. Increasing the number of clients by attracting new clients - payment card holders.
2. Minimizing the risk of accepting counterfeit banknotes as payment.
3. Improving service for customers (the ability to choose a payment method - cash or card), which increases the status of the enterprise.
4. Increase in the turnover of the enterprise, because according to statistics, the average amount of a card transaction is 40% higher than the amount of cash payment. In addition, without funds, the buyer can pay for goods and services using a credit card.
5. Saving money and time for collection and recalculation of funds.

However, despite all the advantages, you need to remember the disadvantages. Firstly, bank plastic cards also cannot be 100% protected from attacks by fraudsters. Secondly, withdrawing cash from an ATM of a “foreign” bank may be accompanied by an additional commission.

And thirdly, despite the fact that the state policy is currently in place to set acquiring fees up to 20% lower than for collection, in some cases the cost of acquiring services even exceeds the cost of collection. And this negatively affects the interest of enterprises to increase the share of non-cash payments.

Questions for self-control:
1. Is the operation of withdrawing cash from a card at an ATM of the issuing bank considered acquiring?
2. Which payment systems are used for acquiring in the Republic of Belarus?
3. What are the main types of equipment required to connect acquiring services?
4. What is Internet acquiring?
5. Who do you pay the additional commission for withdrawing cash from an ATM of a “foreign” bank, the issuing bank or the acquiring bank?

Definitions:

Acquiring- this is the activity of the bank, which includes settlements with trade (service) enterprises for transactions carried out using cards, as well as the issuance of cash to cardholders who are not clients of the bank.
Internet acquiring is a service for paying for goods and services on the Internet using bank plastic cards.

Processing– activities for collecting and processing information coming from trade (service) organizations, ATMs, self-service payment and information terminals, cash dispensing points when carrying out transactions with cards, as well as transferring processed information for non-cash payments.

Issuing bank– a bank that issues plastic cards.

Telpuk Marina especially for the project Financial Literacy

Bank news and press releases

Belarusbank's mobile acquiring service is gaining popularity among Belarusian trading enterprises (press release)

The number of trade and service organizations using GandlyarOK mobile payment terminals to accept non-cash payments using bank cards has exceeded 500 units. These include individual entrepreneurs, courier services, taxis, goods delivery services for online stores, outbound trade enterprises, etc., that is, mainly medium and small business organizations located both in regional centers and in small towns throughout the territory Belarus.

The GandlyarOK mobile payment terminal is a reading device that is connected via an audio jack to a smartphone or tablet computer with Android operating systems. The mobile terminal is ready to accept payments using bank cards immediately after registering with the GandlyarOK service and installing the free mobile application from GooglePlay. Thus, the solution allows any trade and service organization to accept non-cash payments from clients holding Visa, MasterCard and BELKART bank payment cards anywhere and at any time.

To pay, the buyer must swipe the card through a reader and sign on the screen of the mobile device to which the mobile terminal is connected. The card receipt is sent to the buyer in the form of an SMS to the mobile phone number specified by him.

The key advantage of the proposal is the security of mobile payment terminals, which do not store information read from the card, but transmit it in encrypted form to the processing center. Each device is equipped with a security chip that allows you to maintain the confidentiality of card data.

Press service of JSC "ASB Belarusbank"

Internet acquiring- a promising area of ​​cooperation between banks and trade and service organizations.

Perhaps one of the most popular and widespread ways to use a bank plastic card is to pay for goods and services in trade (service) organizations - shops, restaurants, cafes, hotels, pharmacies, fitness centers, etc.

Today, more than 28,000 trade and service organizations in the Republic of Belarus serve plastic card holders, of which more than 15,600 (or 55% of the total number) are based on agreements concluded with JSC JSB Belarusbank.

However, the opportunity to make purchases without visiting stores is increasingly attracting modern Belarusians. Today, in our country, as well as throughout the world, the popularity of paying for goods via the Internet is growing. Internet trading also attracts the attention of both the business community and government authorities. Therefore, we decided to talk about the prospects for the development of the field of Internet payments, namely about Internet acquiring. The director of the plastic card settlement center of OJSC "ASB Belarusbank" answered the questions. Anatoly Bogovik.

- Anatoly Anatolyevich, how did the idea to develop the direction of Internet acquiring come about?

- "Always be there" - this is the motto of Belarusbank. Almost every Belarusian family uses the services of our bank. We have achieved that the bank is often deservedly called “the people's bank.”

Having held leading positions in acquiring in trade and service organizations for many years, we decided to be close to bank card holders on the Internet.

Belarusbank has been working in the field of Internet acquiring since 2010, i.e. provides settlements for payment transactions for goods, works and services carried out using bank plastic cards in online stores. This direction is really very promising. According to statistics, more than 30% of the population of Belarus has access to the Internet; accordingly, the popularity of shopping in online stores will grow. Now it is not at all necessary to go shopping in a long search for the necessary product: in a matter of seconds it can be found online via the Internet.

To date, the bank has drawn up more than 60 agreements with online stores. Our partners include such popular stores as www.policy.by, www.kvitki.by, www.ticketpro.by, www.eda.by, www.pokupon.tut.by etc. We expect this list to increase many times by the end of this year.

- What, in your opinion, are the distinctive features of Internet acquiring?

First of all, for now we can note the caution of Belarusian users, as well as the not very wide range of goods and services provided by domestic online stores.

According to research, the most popular goods for Belarusians in online stores are books and stationery. In second place is technology, third place is shared by cosmetics and perfumes, as well as computers and components. Home delivery of food is becoming increasingly popular. As for clothes and shoes, for Europeans and Americans buying clothes on the Internet is the norm. The Belarusian consumer likes to touch clothes, try them on, etc.

But again, everything is developing and significant progress is noticeable.

- There is an opinion that shopping on the Internet is dangerous. Some people are simply afraid of losing the money that is stored on the card. Are these fears justified and how can a cardholder protect theirs when making online payments?

Trading on the Internet is indeed an activity with more high level risk than, for example, trading in regular stores. We cannot afford to risk the security and trust of our clients, so we pay a lot of attention to information security issues.

Fraud, as a rule, occurs where the proper level of data transmission security is not ensured. The Bank uses proven software and hardware data protection tools recommended by international payment systems. The cardholder independently sets a password for the payment transaction. Application of a special protocol 3-D Secure reliably protects both the online store and the card holder from the risk of fraudulent transactions.

In addition, there are basic security measures that any plastic card holder must follow when making payments on the Internet:

• make online payments only from your computer;
• keep anti-virus programs up to date;
• be careful:
• Before making a payment, you must familiarize yourself with the terms of payment, return (cancellation), refund and delivery of the order;
• never show your card PIN code while surfing the Internet;
• use Internet sites that use special software for protection;
• It is advisable to change the 3-D Secure password after each online payment.

- What are the benefits of cooperation with a bank for online stores?

Now trade using the Internet is attractive for buyers and provides new opportunities for the sale of goods, works (services) for sellers.

A modern online store is not only a means of demonstrating information about the availability and basic consumer properties of a product, but primarily a means of selling goods. The seller gets the opportunity to quickly establish contact with the buyer and receive money for the goods sold.

For online stores Cooperation with the bank will bring a number of advantages, including the following:

• firstly, a significant increase in the customer base and the number of sales channels;
• secondly, guaranteed receipt of funds in payment for goods, works (services);
• thirdly, reducing the cost of maintaining retail premises and personnel;
• fourthly, Belarusbank offers a reduced amount of remuneration when making payments using plastic cards on the Internet.

Benefits for the buyer are also obvious. This

• expanding the choice of goods and payment methods;
• saving time;
• the opportunity to immediately realize the desire to purchase a product by paying for it with a bank plastic card;
• 24/7 system operation;
• Acceptance for payment of bank plastic cards of leading international payment systems Visa International, MasterCard Worldwide.

By the way, by the end of this year it is planned to implement the ability to make Internet payments using plastic cards of the national payment system BelCard.