IEX Retrieves Payout Reports from the Acquirer

When working with online payments, you often encounter the terms gateway and acquirer. They are frequently confused - but they play two very different roles in the payment flow.

At IEX, we retrieve payout reports directly from the acquirer. To understand why, it’s important to understand the difference.

Gateway vs. Acquirer: What’s the Difference?

🔌 Gateway - the technical facilitator

A payment gateway is the technical solution that:

• Collects card or payment information
• Sends the transaction to the acquirer
• Handles authorization in checkout
• Connects the webshop to the payment infrastructure

The gateway is the system the customer interacts with during checkout.

However, the gateway does not handle the actual money.

💳 Acquirer - the party that handles the money

An acquirer is the financial institution that:

• Has the agreement with the merchant to process payments
• Receives funds from the card schemes
• Pays out the funds to the merchant’s bank account
• Deducts fees and settles the transactions

In other words, the acquirer is the party that “withdraws the money behind the gateway” and manages the actual settlement.

Why Does IEX Retrieve Reports from the Acquirer?

Because the acquirer:

• Performs the final settlement
• Calculates and deducts fees
• Executes the payout to the bank account
• Holds the official reconciliation data

The gateway may show authorizations and transaction data — but the acquirer’s reports show:

• What was actually paid out
• When it was paid out
• Which fees were deducted

That is why IEX retrieves payout reports directly from the acquirer to ensure accurate reconciliation and bookkeeping.

Who Should You Look At?

Many businesses believe their gateway is their “payment provider.”

But the key question is:

Who is actually withdrawing the funds and paying them out to your bank account?

That is your acquirer — and that is where the settlement takes place.

Major Gateways in the Scandinavian Market

Some of the most widely used gateways in Scandinavia include:

• Nets Easy
• Quickpay
• Pensopay
• Flatpay
• S5
• Stripe
• Adyen
• Checkout.com
• Onpay
• Frisbii

Some providers (such as Stripe and Adyen) operate as both gateway and acquirer within a single integrated solution.

Acquirers support by IEX

IEX supports a number of the largest acquirers in the Nordic region. If you are unsure which acquirer is withdrawing and paying out your funds, you can check whether you receive payouts from any of the following:

• Altapay
• Clearhaus
• Elavon
• Klarna
• MobilePay
• MyNets
• Nets Easy
• Rapyd
• Shopify Payments
• Stripe (Payouts)
• Swedbank Pay

Note:
Several modern payment providers combine gateway and acquiring services into one solution — but technically and from an accounting perspective, the roles remain distinct.

In Short

Why This Makes Sense

By retrieving payout reports directly from the acquirer, IEX ensures:

• Accurate reconciliation
• Documentation of payouts
• Transparency regarding fees
• Accounting precision

It is the acquirer’s reports that reflect the financial reality — which is why we base our reconciliation on them.