mer·chant
A person or organisation engaged in the buying and selling of goods or services within domestic or international markets.
Institutional definition: A merchant is a commercial entity that participates in trade by offering goods or services in exchange for payment. In modern financial infrastructure, the term extends to any business that accepts electronic payments through acquiring banks and payment processors.
Technical context: Within the United Kingdom, merchants operate inside a regulated payments ecosystem involving acquirers, processors, gateways, and card schemes. The merchant is the legal counterparty responsible for the transaction under applicable card-scheme rules.
The Three-Pillar Framework
Financial institutions specialising in corporate finance, underwriting, capital raising, and trade finance for commercial and institutional clients.
The financial and technical infrastructure enabling merchants to accept, process, and settle electronic payments.
A specialised business account used to accept and settle electronic card payments through an acquiring bank.
About this ledger
The Merchant UK Institutional Ledger provides authoritative, dictionary-standard definitions of core terms within the UK payments and merchant-banking ecosystem.